Walking through the garden is usually a Garteriffic experience but it was already too toasty for snakes. Well, most snakes. This bit of Garter coil was visible.
Down at the river, it was even a bit too warm for the sun-worshipping turtles, though two distant Painters were visible.
Sort of.
While I was down there fiddling with the camera, this Chipmunk kept darting out, then jump back to the bushes. Back and forth.
He finally ran right past, about 3 feet behind us.
Still looking out at the turtles, Andrea said "look behind you". I figured our furry friend was darting back out, but no. A very indignant young Milk Snake was giving us 'tude for being on her beach!
Talk about unexpected!
We had no intention of doing a full hike in this heat, so we just went down-river for a bit, in hopes of seeing some turtles on "Musk Tree". Sure enough, as we got near, we noticed a Painter and below it, a namesake turtle.
I love multi-species basking.
On a branch below those two, we watched this Painter climb up into position.
This guy emerged from below the Musk/ Painter combo...
And joined them.
Further out in the water, this socially distancing Painter looked on judgmentally.
We proceeded down the river a little bit more but saw no more animals. A look back at the 3 Amigos Plus 1 was an amusing sight, though.
That was enough for now, we headed out. I peeked into a wooded (well shaded) area on the way out and was surprised to see a Wood Frog up! I wasn't even "looking for Wood Frogs".
It was roughly a million degrees out by now so we decided it was time to get a little wet. We went to another spot in the next county where we can both wade in a river and look for Water Snakes and turtles. We spent a little time there but not much was up. I missed a basking Musk but managed to get a shot of this large Painter enjoying a drippy waterfall.
From there, we went deeper into the County to our favorite Musk Turtle spot. It's also very good for Water Snakes and they seemed like our only chance to see snakes on such a hot day. But first we went to look for Musks.
The pond's water level was fairly low and the waves on the shore were choppy. Still, it wasn't long before we saw a tiny, acorn-looking shell bobbing in the water.
Then another.
Soon, it was ridiculous and we had nine. I scooped three up in one handful.
Almost eight, but we caught this guy's attempted escape.
It was 10 tiny Musks in the bag when Andrea made her video and then released them.
It was fascinating watching them all make their way back to the water. Some took the easy route, some went through the brush, some went right over our feet. Within minutes, they had all disappeared.
We went over to the other side of the road that intersects the ponds. The water was less choppy there. As hoped for, a large, female Water Snake was chilling in the water. The population here seems to retain a lot of red even into adulthood.
Guess what Andrea found?
Another good sized Water Snake surprised me in the shallow water. I wish I could have caught her or gotten a shot of her body, because she looked like a peppermint stick, she was so red. She stuck her head out of the deep water eventually, so I could get a noggin shot at least.
Back up on land, Andrea noticed Tinies!!
She presumptuously said "I think they're Fowler's", so I explained to her that it's very tough to determine species on such a small specimen and since we'd never seen toads here, I was unwilling to assign fowleri to this toad.
Then we found an adult Fowler's!
Sweet! Two Fowler's in a row!!
We ended the day on a young Water Snake. This guy is more red than the Milk from the morning and is a good example of this colorful population.
This ended our 2020 summer vacation. We got out seven times and saw 20 different species of reptile and amphibian. I added 11 bird species to the count, as well. Best of all, Andrea and I got to be together doing what we love. The overall human sightings were less than usual (thank you, heat) and we have no complaints.
Except that work has since resumed.
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