October at a Glance.

I got sick, the weather has been vile and we have been busy. This is my catch-all post for October.

Saturday, October 5th, 2019.
We had to go to the Cape for Sea Turtle sign-ups. I wasn't feeling great but it had to be done. We'd made plans to meet up with our friend Tim to go look for Box Turtles with him but to be honest, after the meeting, I wasn't sure I had much left in my tank. But we did go out and Andrea found the only Box the two of us would see.

It was a best case scenario... Tim had last measured this one in April, now in October he could see how it had fared through the summer.

He asked if we'd like to join him while he searched for his tagged turtles but I was already feeling pretty poorly. We saw a few more things before the long drive home. Like a Chipmunk stuffing his cheeks.


A short stack of Painted Turtles.


A very green Bullfrog.

That was that. I got home and became very sick for a week. I had pneumonia. Not sure just how I got it, but there you are. I had to cancel plans, band practises and work. I had a 5 hour work week.

Sunday, October 13th, 2019.
8 days later, I wanted to try some fresh air. We took a very easy hike to a nearby spot in Norfolk County, the one that had been decimated a few years ago but has showed (small) signs of improvement this year.

We went slowly. Our first sight was a massive American Toad. If this is the last one we see this year, we went out big.


We were both standing right over this "hidden" Garter.


Out on The Alley, the word was Mantid.



I was feeling better but far from good but the next thing I saw perked me up, for sure. A small squiggle on the edge of the Alley's path was a this-year's DeKay. It is the first DeKay's we have seen on the Alley since the destruction in May of 2016. This is big news for us. He was born here.


Obviously, work-trucks were still slamming through this area but at least the tread-mark puddles were being used. This gorgeous Peeper plopped into one.


Andrea then found a feisty Garter who in turn found her... tasty.


Our last sight was another DeKay's, still on the Alley. This was a brute. Dekes don't get much bigger than this one!

I survived the hike. Getting some sun on my skin and some walking in was very good for body and soul.

Saturday, October 19th, 2019.
My band played the night before so we were toast but it was pretty nice out in the morning, so we went on a salamander hunt. Our goal was our First of Year Marbled, but we didn't see any. We started the day with a plethora of Plethodons... cinerus, to be exact.




Lots of Reds and Leads and some real chunky monkeys.

We did have some non-Marbled Ambystoma luck. We were seeing spots, both small and large.




We were actually at the Copperhead spot but neither of us had the energy to go up the hill so we just turned back, happy with our caudates.

Sunday, October 20th.
We were minding our friends' cat. I peeked in their backyard, despite it being in the 50s and overcast. A neonate DeKay's and small Redback didn't mind the weather.



Friday, October 25th.
My band played again on Thursday night (I told you it's been a weird month) so I was out until all hours, but we'd both taken that Friday off. Our plan was to go pick up our new (to us) car (a Subaru Impreza that increases our turtle capacity), then take a drive out to a spot in Plymouth County. The sun was supposed to come out but it never really did. So we crossed snakes and turtles off of our list and enjoyed the plentiful Redbacks present.



We were reasonably sure there were no Racers in a trashed sofa... this mouse told us so.


Redbacks save the day.


Almost a medic-alert.


I think this is a Lesser Pine Katydid.

I'd thought about it earlier in the year but this day made me decide to do a Grasshopper/ Cricket/ Katydid (the Orthopterans if you will) count in 2020.

This Red Squirrel and a buddy of his put on a hell of a good chase show, then this one yelled at me until we left. Got some hilarious shots, anyway.


Last up, I think a Pine Tree Spur-throat Grasshopper, laying eggs in a crevice in a wooden handrail.

We barely made it home, so tired we were.

Saturday, October 26th.
 Our last excursion in October was a fun one and a potentially important one. Our friend Jef works at the local zoo. He asked us to come over to the zoo and the surrounding park to look for animals and help identify habitat. We're honored to have been asked and hoped to have some success.

We all agreed when we met up at 11 AM that we wished it was about 10° warmer but the sun was up and we were a tenacious lot. Andrea struck first with a dark Redback.


A stream got us one more salamander, the first Two-Line we'd seen in quite some time.


Of course, we all wanted to document a snake on the grounds but we weren't going to get so lucky this day. Milk Snakes have been seen in and near the Kangaroo enclosure before, obviously attracted by the mice who nom on 'Roo food. But despite some exemplary habitat, we saw no snakes.

The pond in the park had some reptiles for us, though, including a surprise. Of course, being a public pond, we'd get our released Red-ear Sliders. That big one is an almost all-black old-timer!


A nearby stack had the usual Red-ears and a couple of Painters... and that bigger one. I showed it to some of my friends who are well-versed in turtle ID and we've come up with... Eastern River Cooter.

We'd seen these in North Carolina years ago but I wasn't aware of them being in the pet-trade. Evidently, they are. So, this guy was released here. I'm told they can tolerate varying temps, so I hope he'll continue to thrive.

Can Map Turtles (seen at Petco recently) be far behind?

Here's a full-on indigenous Painted Turtle grabbing some rays.


We looked around the "backstage" area behind the Kangaroos... filled with rocks, debris, dumpsters, greenhouses... Milk Snake heaven! We hope to go back in the Spring to walk with Jef again and find the Milk House. I wish we'd have been able to do a better job for him this time out but it was just a bit too cool. Our last animal was this Grey Squirrel who was hiding. "Nope, you can't see me."


Yeah, we realize the healthy herp season is just about over. Within a couple of weeks, we'll be back on the Cape, patrolling the beach, and looking for sick sea turtles. As much as we love doing that, it can be exhausting and very emotional. I like the good ol' summer walks where you see a Garter slithering off the path. But the turtles need us and I think my arm will be ready to go when needed. I just hope we don't have any 88 lb Loggerheads right away.

The Lizards of Boston. 9-29-2019

Italian Wall Lizards have been popping up everywhere. Podarcis sicula, a member of the Lacertidae family, are native to central and southeastern Europe but they seem to be crazy adaptable and populations have been popping up all over the place, including in the US. Connecticut, Long Island, Central Park, NY, Pennsylvania... even Kansas has sustainable populations of these lizards. So does Boston, and it is likely the northern-most part of their "range".

We had heard about them for a few years, living in the public gardens that are almost in the shadow of Fenway Park. We'd been meaning to get our butts over to the gardens to look for them but never pulled the trigger. Luckily, our friend Jef leads a monthly Urban Nature Walk, planning nature expeditions in and around the city. When he announced a return to the gardens (they'd had a successful walk a couple of years ago), we eagerly joined the crew to see Boston's lizards.

We met up at about 10 AM on a sunny Sunday morning and couldn't have asked for better lizard weather. There was a lot of work going on in the gardens, including a digging in a large compost pile, presumably the very pile the lizards dig themselves into to survive the cold winters. We all went in and kept our eyes peeled. Andrea got a few shots of some insects while waiting for squamates to turn up.



I struck off on my own for a while, talking to people who tend gardens there, trying to gather as much info as I could. It seems they all had seen the lizards in various places throughout the gardens. I had no luck on my own. But I saw a large portion of the gang hanging out by one particular garden and I figured they might have encountered our target. They had! Andrea got this shot before I got there.

So, there we were. That was her lifer Italian Wall Lizard.

I had to train my eyes, but eventually, I got adjusted and could decipher their movement. They were a bit smaller than I'd expected... this spot only had youngsters flitting about. (That means they were born in Boston!) I finally got my camera on my own lifer.


There was a lot of action in this corner garden. The lizards are super fast so getting photos was not easy but it was a worthwhile challenge. We guess there was a half dozen or more specimens running about in this area. Here are the decent pictures I got. I'm sure the same lizards are featured more than once in this series of shots, but it was a delight to watch them and try for photos.










Massachusetts hasn't had a lizard species present since the 1860s when the last historic records of the 5-Lined Skink were noted. While I bet the skink will be back in Mass. before too long (what's this climate change shit the kids are talking about?), it's nice to wake up in my own bed and get up and go to look for lizards. How did the Wall Lizards get here? Released pets? I dunno... they are in the pet trade but that seems unlikely. My guess is that they arrived in some of the plants present in the gardens. They are formidable breeders and hopefully, they will survive the cold Boston winters. Though they are invasive, they pose no real threat to local fauna and are probably a tasty treat for the nearby hawks.

One of our crew saw one adult lizard but I only got photos of the small ones. Still, I'm very happy to have been a part of this day and I thank Jef and the whole group for letting us be a part of it. Here is the gang that I had the pleasure of lizard-watching with, Jef in front with the shades.