We got there at a very good time, just as the sun was warming things up nicely. Rat Snake Ground Zero didn't give us instant gratification, so we moved on to some other areas of the park. Our first animal was a lovely Pickerel Frog that Andrea noticed.
Flipping a board got us a glimpse of a snoozing Garter Snake.
Moving on, I saw some broken up blacktop and was able to present a bouquet of neonate Garter shoestrings to Andrea.
I put them back and noticed another wee one, blue and getting ready to shed.
A massive Katydid.
This American Toad is black. Melanistic? I don't know but he sure is beautiful.
Welcome to Painted Turtle Land, land of Painted Turtles.
While photographing the turtles, we'd noticed a slim Garter down among some rocks. He slid in before we could get a shot... but he couldn't outsmart us (this time)!
Locust borer... considered a pest. But man, what a beautiful pest.
Back by some debris, we saw this gorgeous Pickerel posing perfectly.
He'd better watch out, though, because this Garter was definitely moving like he was in hunt-mode.
Spoiler alert... they never crossed paths.
There was a tarp there and as I approached, two Garters took off, perhaps spooked by my clunky footsteps. Another poked his head out, then rapidly pulled it back in. I thanked him for the tip-off and got this shot inside the tarp.
We had done a loop by this time and decided to poke around again, particularly at Rat Snake Ground Zero. We approached an old tree and noticed a small skin we hadn't seen before and photographed it. Then, circling the tree, we noticed a coil... and a noggin. We'd finally seen our First-of-Year Black Rat Snake.
Every "herper" in Massachusetts knows exactly where this is and we'd been to this park many times before, even seeing some Rats, but never in the tree. This made our "dangerous" trek into the wilds of high risk very worthwhile. (Do I sound like a trophy herper, or what?)
Andrea, with her keen eyesight (for some things) noticed a small hole in the top of a sand pile and dug into it, determining that is was a successfully hatched out nest.
We decided to head back to a trail that we'd only done once before but we remembered it as very froggy. Our recollections were correct. We'd hit a rich vein of Bullfrogs.
Andrea got this shot and I hadn't noticed until upload that there's a beautiful, speckled Green in the upper right corner, in the moss.
This is a Green that I saw through the bushes.
We finished up with some more moss-loving Bulls.
On the way out, we checked where the Rat had been for one more look, but it was nowhere to be seen. Our timing had been very good earlier.
It's always good to add a First-of-Year, even so late in the season. That, along with the many other sights, makes our death-defying antics worth it. Bite me, mosquito-boy. You didn't get me this time!
By the way, it was the last day of Summer.
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