Unexpected Sunday Critters. 5-24-2020

So, Saturday, the nicest day in the forecast, was cold and windy. The worst day, Sunday, turned out to be pretty nice. Of course, we'd made family plans for that day, but we figured we could fit in a quick hike before visiting Andrea's mum so we decided to check out our "Green Snake Spot" in Norfolk County on the way over.

It was a little windy still, but the sun was burning bright. We might have been there a little early as we saw no Garters right away and this place is filthy with them, which is wonderful. But while we were there, we started to see some morning movement. This guy was hidden in the brush.

Many Garters here have this vivid white stripe... gorgeous.

I was standing about 4 feet from a large rock when I noticed this guy coming out.


But that was right on a sunny outcropping. Most places were still in the shade, thus much cooler. It should be noted that Andrea saw a pointy green thing sticking out from a hole in a rock. Blade of grass or Green Snake tail? She poked it and it pulled in. Crap. But at least it's more evidence than the skin from last year, the only sign we saw of a Green in Massachusetts in all of 2019.

So, we moved on. This guy was flipped in the middle of a field. Still asleep in my hand.


Up in a sunny spot, this guy was crawling along.

Here's his face.


But most of the Garters were still sleeping under rocks. Here's what they looked like upon flipping:




It should be noted for all of the holier-than-thou fuck-knobs out there that none of these snakes were handled or bothered in any way and the logs were replaced carefully without even waking the animals. So fuck off.

Andrea and I have a thing called "looking for hamburgers"... it's when a snake is visible between rocks, like the meat sticking out from the buns. This is sort of a hamburger, with bonus spider fries.


So that was our morning hike. Not too bad. It's a shame we couldn't photograph a Green but we're not trophy herpers... we're pleased with the Garteriffic experience. We made our way over to Andrea's mum's house and visited (observing social distancing). Her mum decided to not join us on a visit to Andrea's Dad's grave (she would go Monday), so we went over to pay our respects to the great man on our own.

His grave is (deservedly) in a lush, beautiful spot in the cemetery. He loved birds and there were many flitting all around. There is also a pond not to far from his site. The pond usually has turtles in it and, since the sun had come out for reals, we walked around it. OK, now how did that Painted Turtle on the right get up there???

He looks pretty pleased with himself.

These two were enjoying the sun. In fact, that yoga guy on the left seems to be enjoying it more than anyone else in the world!

Come on!


We often see Bullfrogs there as well and look! There's one now. He's coming to get you Barbara!


This Red-tail was munching on a bunny above our heads.

I'm glad I didn't see the initial grab and kill.

Lastly, we again ended our day as we had started it... we simultaneously found Garters. Mine was larger but hers was far feistier.


Bless these tenacious, adaptive, successful and beautiful species. They make even a somber day joyous.

3 Days in May. 5-19, 21 and 23, 2020

It's catch as catch can in this stupid world, so we went out on Tuesday the 19th at 7:30 AM to look for urban Garters. It was cool but it was sunny and right there, in a small strip of brush/ chain link fence, next to a parking  was a pair of healthy looking, good sized Garter Snakes.



Our usual turn-around spot hadn't warmed up enough yet, so we went back and walked through the park on the way home, staying close to the edge, next to the train tracks. We saw a couple of warming Garter bodies through the iron fence.



This guy was out in the grass on our side of the fence.

You can't go wrong with five morning Garters. All of them appeared to be very healthy.

Thursday the 21st was my birthday and we'd really hoped to get some hiking in. Luckily, it was still plenty warm after Andrea's work ended, so we went over to a sort-of local spot for some PM critters. Andrea struck first with a frisky Ringneck.


I contributed a dusty American Toad.


See this cutie?

Her next find was one of the most beautiful Milks we've ever seen!



We also got our first Lady Slipper of the year.


Saturday the 23rd was forecast to be a sunny, delightful day. We'd planned on the massive turtle spot. It was, after all, World Turtle Day. But we saw the howling wind when we stepped outside and made a last minute change to a different spot in Plymouth County.

Much to our surprise and disappointment, it was raw and windy when we got there. Still, we started our search. We managed a Ringneck in a pile of rocks, so it wasn't a bad start.


This jet-black Leadback was an impressive animal.


The vernal there is one of our favorite places to look through and we're happy to see that it is so massive this year, most of the man-children on their ATVs have been avoiding it, forming a new path going around it. Bullfrogs have decided they are in charge.



A water's-edge log had 3 moist Redbacks under it.



Another Bully Ribbit-machine.


Peepers were present, as well, though they were hard to find until they jumped. The second guy here is roughly 3/4" long.



Happy with our first stop, we next headed to the bog. It became clear pretty quickly that we wouldn't see many (if any) reptiles. The temp had dropped to about 51° and with the whipping wind, it was very uncomfortable. Let's face it, the forecast was very, very wrong. Still, our anuran friends could be seen a little bit. Let'e give it up for Bullfrogs! YEAH, BULLFROGS!!!!


Before finishing up on this spot, we added a Green Frog to the mix. We'd heard their calls, but this was the first one we saw.


We hit a few more spots but hurried through them because, let's face it, it sucked out. There were no turtles tenacious enough to bask in the chilly, sunless wind. We were admittedly disappointed that the weather wasn't what we were led to believe it would be, but we're grateful for the five species we did see. And that made it 8 on the week. Hell, we're lucky to get out at all, I guess.

On a very positive note: we saw NO OTHER HUMANS out. Never once had to pull up our masks.

Nnn... I don't Know. 5-17-2020

To get this post started, I asked Andrea to pick a name for it.

So, we had another nice day ahead of us. Where to go? We chose a favorite spot that we hadn't been to yet in 2020. It's a pretty crowded place even without the quarantine-evaders so we'd been a bit reluctant to go. But we got there at about 10 AM and it really wasn't any worse than usual. There was actually nobody up near the first pond yet, so we had some frogs all to ourselves. First up was a Bullfrog.


Followed by a Green Frog.


Followed by another massive Bull with a silver tympanium.


Hiding in plain sight... a good sized Northern Water Snake.


The greenest Green Frog I ever did see.


A stack o' Painters seen through the trees.


A skinny Garter was poking through the leaves looking for a snack. We watched it's shaking-head hunting style for a while.


We got up to a small water-spill area that is usually crowded with humans. It was no worse than usual, but we still figured we wouldn't see anything. But we were wrong... this large Nerodia was just below the bridge, peeking out from between the rocks.


This oft-photographed rock always has a Painter on it, but getting it from this angle revealed a second basker.


This angle also offered me a funny look at that last Water Snake.


OK, here's the traditional shot of that turtle perch. Only one visible.


This path was more crowded than we like, but Andrea was still able to spot little coils of Garter off the path, secretly warming up to start their day.



STOP!

Mammal time!

A Chipmunk.


We got out to the less-traveled part of the park and were more in our element. This gorgeous cinnamon Garter was stretching out next to the path.


Next up, we saw an American Toad wearing a piece of leaf as a hat.

I thought he looked dashing.

We went to a secluded spot to flip some moist logs and hopefully find our first 4-Toed Salamander on the year. Lo and behold... WE DID!


In a case of high-road/ low-road, I took the high and was rewarded with a secret Painter.


Hey, look! Another cute American Toad.


Up in a grassy, open area that we consider our half-way point, Andrea made an unexpected (but somehow typical for her) discovery... an over-wintered Painter hatchling trucking through the grass.


While carrying that guy towards the water, she saw another one! The second guy wasn't as active and has a bulging eye. He may make it, he may not but we took him along to give him a better shot.


We got them to a shallow, weedy edge of the pond and put them down. #2 was very tentative, but #1 barreled right in.

We enjoyed watching his acclimate to his new environment. His swimming needs work!

We took a pond-side break to eat pretzels and let some accidentally fall into the pond where they were attacked by voracious Punkin'seeds.

Andrea finally flipped us a Redback!


We got to the part of the pond where many distant Painter perches are visible. My zoom-lens went into overdrive.





I got a pretty good picture of a very patient Common Yellowthroat.


By this time, we had made a huge loop and were back by the water-spill. An incredibly cute Water Snake skidded into the water and a Garter showed itself, too.



Nearing the front, I photographed what I thought was an Oriole but it turned out to be the 188th species of bird I've ever photographed... an American Redstart, #40 on the year.


Another secret Garter. Humans 10 feet away had absolutely no idea he was there.


Our last critter... we ended as we had started. Mr. Bullfrog is his name.


It looks like not everybody and their whole disease-carrying family are going as crazy as they were last month. There's still far too many folks out there for my liking but we're getting good at avoiding their stupidity and trash throwing, habitat destroying ways. Hopefully, everyone will decide nature sucks after all and go back to their video games.