Now, anyone who looks for reptiles and amphibians in this state knows exactly where to go for the extremely rare Black Rat Snakes. Well, the sun was all over "the spot", but no Rats were about. This skin was a reminder of what large and magnificent creatures they are, though.
Our flipping was much more successful, however. A board had a Garter and a Ringer under it.
An old sign had a Ringneck sleeping in a letter.
I peeked under another board, saw this wee Garter, took his photo, and returned it back to how it was. Easy peasy.
One more Ringneck.
Heading back towards the trail, Andrea found a light, tannish Redback. I need to come up with a morph name for this color. Too-much-cream-in-the-coffeeback?
Then Andrea became a superhero and flipped our first Eft of the year!
I countered with a perfect Goldtop Redback.
We walked past a lovely swampy pond, then along the shore of a lake, then curved back to walk by the pond again. The second time by, we saw things waking up. This Painted Turtle looked happy to see us.
Way out in the pond, Andrea saw a shape that didn't fit in with the surroundings. My zoom lens discovered it was a Water Snake nestled around a branch stem in the sun.
This answered a question we had asked ourselves a little earlier... "have we ever seen a Water Snake here? Because I'll bet they're here!"
Ahhh... a wonderful "soon" toad, an American one.
Our need for turtles was satisfied by a four-pack of Painters.
We kept walking past and checking "the spot" and surrounding areas for Rat Snakes but by now, the park was filling in with more people. In fact, two ladies were picnicing right there. So we decided to call it a day. It had been pretty good. Two more Ringnecks next to the parking lot made it even better.
It was only noon, though, so we decided to drive into the next county (Hampden) and do some recon on a place Andrea had heard of, but we'd never been to. The big pond next to the parking lot got us off on the right foot with a couple of Painters.
We didn't quite know where to go, so we poked around the edge of the pond (a few frogs evaded us quickly), then found a trail-head that was next to a creek. The trail followed the flowing water for a while and I got all excited to get in a look for Duskies, but the opportunity never presented itself. The one place that we could get over to the water easily got us to a gorgeous, shaded waterfall.
We continued down this descending path and could hear the water was getting quieter; the path was separating from the creek. But it was still private (no humans at all) and sunny and this Garter egged us on.
We flipped a few stones along the descent. Andrea found a few large Millipedes.
We took the whole trail down, despite creaky knees and blistery toes. It was over a mile down, and that means we had to then head back up! Actually, going up wasn't as bad for our aches and pains and we paced ourselves. This Garter shot across the path and disappeared but I went around the brush and got in front of him for a photo. I picked him up so Andrea could see the gorgeous white stripe and he constricted her finger.
For some reason, I picked up a very small rock and under it was an Eft, all folded up to fit. Weird little bastard!
We made it back up the hill and decided to look around that big main pond and see what was around. At least one very industrious beaver lives here. That tree ain't no sapling.
Along the non-pond side of the path, there were puddles being fed by a hill. Naturally, we looked for frogs... and found a Green.
This Garter was in there, too. We didn't mention the frog to him. If he wants to eat it, he'll have to find it himself.
This end of the pond had some Painted action, too.
The pond was actually a second body of water on either side of the trail at the far end. The other side was a bit deeper and there was a drain that led to a culvert to the "main pond". This Water Snake was exploring around said drain and might have even gone into it.
This side had loads of beautiful Green Frogs.
This Nerodia was interested in finding frogs as well. We saw him foraging under the water and possibly striking and missing under some leaves.
This Green stayed on land. Less chances to be eaten, I guess.
Back out on the pond, more Painters had come up for some afternoon sun. Lots of them, in fact.
Hell, this was some pretty damn good recon!
I hadn't seen a Woodchuck (or even a Groundhog) in many years. Andrea saw something across the pond.
Thank you, zoom lens.
So, not a bad day... FOY Efts, 8 species and a new place that we like a lot. We worked hard and enjoyed every moment.
The End.
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