This guy will be easy to identify should we ever run into him again... he has a deep gouge of a scar.
We walked about a mile in, getting some evening sun and exercise. Along the way, we encountered three Leadbacks. The first one is everso speckled!
The best critters to see are the ones you don't expect to see. When Andrea discovered Garter Snakes and DeKay's Snakes along a busy street in Roslindale a few years ago, I was astounded. But sure enough, they are there and now that I'm home more often, she has taken me on a couple of morning walks to see these urban beauties.
Friday, May 8th was a warm(ish) and sunny morning, so we took a 7:30 AM walk, just as she would on her way to the train station. And sure enough, at a spot she'd seen them before, there among the strewn garbage, was a beautiful Garter Snake.
People that were not looking for snakes had just walked right past.
Heading back home after our success (she had to start work shortly), we walked the back end of a playground. This back end is full of brambles and trees for about 10 feet, a fence, then train tracks for the commuter rail. It looked as good as any place along this busy section of humanity. Sure enough, right out in the leaves was a gorgeous, good sized Garter.
She was oblivious to us while we stood there watching her. She eventually crawled right between my feet.
Yes, I wear Crocs. What's it to you?
The weekend was cold and rainy. It has been a below average Spring thus far. Saturday was a bust, though I did see some brave Painters on a log as I drove by a body of water going for groceries. Sunday was Mother's Day and we went over to Andrea's mum's house to stand outside the window and talk to her. I walked into the backyard and flipped a piece of roof tile and there was a DaKay's Snake under it.
Andrea hadn't seen a snake in the yard since she was a child, so this was big and exciting news.
I was spurred on, so I flipped a few more things. I next found a pair of Plethodons... a Red and a Lead!
I was showing Andrea how I'd found the Deke and flipped another tile.
Though this was near where I'd released the first one, this was a different Deke!!
On Tuesday, May 12th, I went over to the Costco to refill a prescription. I knew it would take a while and I didn't want to hang in the germy store, so I brought my camera. Just in case. Sure enough, it was going to be a half hour, so I went out to walk the perimeter of the parking lot and looked into the drainage pools that go around the property.
Obviously, it was super filthy back there with trash and papers, but it was obviously good enough to raise baby Bullfrogs in because there were hundreds of Bullfrog tadpoles darting through the shallow water.
Most of them were massive, too... 3-5 inches long.
On the far end of a drainage pond, a Painted Turtle was enjoying some sun.
Here's a huge example of a Bullfrog tadpole. I took this from 15 feet away, from the other side of a retaining fence. It has a double chin.
"In these uncertain times"... we have to catch as catch can. These sightings were all a beautiful treat, mostly in unexpected places.
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