Turtle Recall. 4-5-2020

Hoping to catch some of the unexpected lightning we had the day before, we headed to a turtle and frog hotspot in Middlesex County late Sunday morning. The trouble was, it was very cool and when we got there, it was breezy and downright chilly. Still, it's a good bird place and we enjoyed being outside. Sadly, plenty of humans were out, too.

A mammal we don't hate is the Muskrat. (All non-homo sapien mammals are well loved by us.) There were many Muskrats out and about this day. Here is one of them.


I was able to add a few birds to the meager 2020 count, too, including the Great Blue Heron atop a bird box.


We were well into our walk before we saw our first reptiles. This stack of Painted Turtles was sharing a goose's nest.


Soon after, we saw this coil of Water Snake ladled out next to the path.


That seems to have broken the seal because now that we were on the other side of the pond, the sun came out a bit and we started seeing mobs of Painted Turtles.




And another Water Snake.


There were plenty of Painters up, but many of them were impossible to photograph. I gave it a shot with these two that were hidden behind bushes. I focused on the front guy's head and got a pretty good shot!


Much to my delight, this shot inspired my talented friend Slade to create a fictional 1960s jazz record out of it!

I fucking LOVE this!

I also fucking loved being in the right place at the right time.. Painterama!



Let's take a closer look at that top guy's yoga!


Basking is serious business.




Andrea finally saw our first and only Garter on the day, a tannin stained orange gal.


We were surprised by the lack of frogs, but you just can't predict these things. We heard them, but never saw them. But the turtle count was soaring!


Finally, Andrea came through again. After hearing Leopards calling all day, we finally saw our First of Year in the still-very-dark flesh.


And then a (probable) Bull!


She'd broken the seal! Here's a Green!


A few more Painters before leaving...



Our last critter was a female Wood Duck, also atop a bird box.


Nothing fancy, just a great walk looking at animals. A day out of the stinking house.