Driving deeper into the National Forest, I was keeping my eyes on the road, thinking that snakes might be heading out to the asphalt to warm up. We'd seen the disastrous results of that before, so my eyes were peeled. I didn't expect to see this on the edge of the road.
Another over-wintered Painted Turtle hatchling. I almost backed up over him as I did an astonished double-take behind the wheel. Andrea carried him across the road to put him closer to a nearby pond.
We got to our first flipping spot and started in. First up was a pretty Leadback. He wasn't in the road, but under a chunk of concrete. I had to move him to replace the chunk, so I posed him on top of it.
A Redback was next.
Completely unexpected, a Spotted Salamander was next.
We started flipping tons of Redbacks so a photo moratorium was put in place, which is to say that unless it's a super special shot, don't take it. Of course, the next guy was this one in this amazing position.
And then a neat 3-pack.
There was a ton of off-road vehicles and motor-bikes buzzing through this beautiful environment. They would all nod to us as they buzzed by, their burning fumes choking us, and I yelled "goo-goo-ga-goo, I got a boo-boo on my tutu" to them. Pesky little child-men. It dawned on me that I rarely see a female of the human species riding these habitat-destroying toys. Goo-goo-fucking-ga-goo.
So, we were a little concerned about the vernal pool that was on this path just over a hill. We went to check on it and I'm happy (and surprised) to say that all of these twats had actually gone around the pool, which had taken over the entire path. There were some older tracks in the puddle, but not many. On the edge of the water was another hatchling Painter.
There was a lot going on in this pond. Here's a ride 'em cowboy Green Frog.
There was a log on the pond's edge that was beautifully covered with bright green moss and I lamented that nothing was posing on it. Mercifully, the abundance of Redbacks came through in the clutch and I found this beauty nearby to model for me.
Be careful, wee turtle... this Bullfrog could take you down in one bite!
This wee Peeper gave me a run for my money, but I finally got his picture.
I watched this guy for a while, not knowing what it was. Some kind of bug larvae. It was moving across the surface of the water in an undulating motion, bending in half, and squiggling forward. It was fascinating.
I asked my friend Teá, the bug guru, what she thought and she got it into the family of Diptera. It was very cool to watch this 3" larvae chuggin' along.
Not a bad start, despite the man-child disturbance. Six species of reptile and amphibian after one stop. We went on the the next spot, a bog, and saw frogs right away.
It wasn't as busy in the bog as we'd originally hoped, but there were no other humans about, so we couldn't complain. Yet another wee, over-wintered hatchling Painter had found his way into the bog.
Careful, buddy... the Bullfrog gang is nearby.
The breeze was very cool and, like the vernal, the water level was very high in the adjacent pond so we didn't see many turtles up on perches, basking in the sun. One distant Painter was up, though.
Our last bog resident was another handsome Bullfrog.
With the breeze and the fact that the sun couldn't decide if it wanted to stay out or not, we decided to go over to the DCR station to see if any Plymouth Red-bellies would be basking. That is usually a reliable spot for them. They are a bit cold tolerant but might not be up anymore. Also, this area gets a lot of people even on a regular day, so we expected the worst.
It wasn't that bad but the usual perches were empty. Distant stacks of Painters were braving it, though.
Much to our surprise, not too far from us and a guy fishing with his noisy brats, this Red-belly, our First-of-Year, was secretly sunning, hidden to most humans.
While we were watching that guy, this one decided to try to climb up mid-log and was having a tough time of it...
This stunning specimen gave us a good chuckle when it couldn't make it, and flopped over backwards, giving us a good look at that red plastron before it went under.
Heading back, we could see through the trees that there were other secluded Painter spots.
When there's a will, there's a way.
Since it wasn't as humany as we'd expected, we took a stroll around the area. Our next encounter was our friend Steve, who we have run into here before. He was with his girlfriend and their kid and were doing just what we were, looking for critters. Unfortunately, in "these uncertain times", we had to stand apart from each other as we talked but it was very good to catch up with him and meet the other two.
Andrea and I headed out to the tip of what we call The Archipelago, which of course it isn't. It's a peninsula. But that's not important right now. As we stood at the tip of the whatever-it-is, we looked down and saw yet another over-wintered hatchling Painter, only this one might be in serious shit.
He was swimming in the clear water, right out there in plain sight. Any fish in the lake would love to nibble that up and we've seen plenty right here that were big enough to do so. And he nonchalantly swam out further.
To intervene or not, that was the question. The answer was yes. I took off my shoes and rolled up my pant legs and pursued the mini-fugitive.
The water was painfully cold and I scolded him.
He still had an egg-tooth. We moved him over to a shallow spot with plenty of cover.
We headed up to leave but, of course, Andrea likes to scour lawns for over-wintered Painter hatchlings. It should come as no surprise that she, in fact, found one more... our tenth of the weekend. This feisty little fella was doing laps in her hands, running a treadmill.
Transporting him the the pond in her hat proved to be no easier... he kept climbing to the top, undeterred when he would slip and fall back.
He was released in a secluded, over-grown edge of the lake and we think his attitude will take him far. Maybe he can teach the other knucklehead some survival skills.
We were getting pretty gassed but we wanted to look on one more trail. We'd seen no snakes yet and, well... hope springs eternal. We parked at a trail-head which is, in fact, where Andrea had released the first hatchling of the day. He was nowhere to be seen, so that's either a very good or a very bad sign. We choose the former.
The pond here was deeper than we'd ever seen it before. There was a guy fishing in one corner, but that didn't seem to bother a couple of stacks of Painters.
It didn't bother the American Toads, either, who could be heard trilling from every direction.
We walked a few paths on which we'd seen snakes before but were coming up empty. Getting to an open field, I just said, "We'll walk to that tree, then turn around." En route to the tree, I saw Andrea lunge. She had found our only snake of the day out in the open field, a young Ribbon Snake.
This was our 7th species on the day and our 15th on the weekend!
We walked the perimeter of the field with no more herp-luck. I saw a few insect sights that made me whip out the camera, though. This Mourning Cloak landed on a tree right in front of me, opened its wings and begged me to photograph it.
This charming little bee was going to town on some Dandelions.
Like a siren song, we were drawn to the pond by the calls of the toads. The fishing guy had left, so we went to his spot and the calls were deafening. We finally started getting our eyes on the noisy little horndogs.
Check out the mess of eggs around this amplexing couple.
This little pervert was watching from the pervert section.
I found my perfect little place in heaven, sitting on a log between these two toads and they trilled and carried on as if I wasn't there.
I could have sat there for hours.
But it was getting late and we had to go. Last sight, this lone Painter enjoying the sun, which had finally decided to stay out for a spell.
We'd hoped to add a few First-of-Years but only wound up with one, but we certainly can't complain with all of the wonderful animals we did see. Fowler's Toads will be back soon, with their demonic sheep bleats. They seem to stay in a bit longer. And the other species in this rich habitat will be around. We'll be back soon.
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