What Snappenin'? August 15th and 16th

The weather was supposed to break and it was going to be cooler on the weekend. As usual, we couldn't decide where to go so our last minute plan was to head to one of our favorite hit or miss spots in Plymouth County. It was downright cold when we got there and I wondered if we'd see anything.

I'm happy as hell with the picture I got for my #6 in my 2020 Grasshopper Project. I present to you the lovely Grizzly Locust... as found.


Reptiles and amphibians were extremely tough to come by. It was sunless and cool so turtles weren't going to be easy. The occasional Painter noggin was all we could hope for.


We'd had a few Pickerel Frogs hand us our collective asses but we finally got the lens on one.


The only snake of the day was this Water Snake who was probably also noticing the abundance of Pickerels.


Here's a couple more hoppity Pickerels.



We found a Bullfrog hot spot and photographed these two knuckleheads.



It should be noted that as well as being very overcast, windy and cool, there has been a hell of a lot of pruning done at this place... to the point of what I consider decimation. There are no hiding places next to the ponds anymore nor are there barriers to give turtles any sense of privacy should they want to bask.


Overall, despite seeing a few animals and getting a good 5 miles of hiking in, it was a bit of a disappointment. We'd hoped the cooler weather would bring out more snakes but it wasn't to be. We got back to the car and started to leave.

But along the driveway out, I noticed a Snapper up against the chain fence next to the dirt road. We had to investigate.

It looked kind of dead but it moved a bit as we approached. Andrea touched its claw and it moved. I slipped my finger under the plastron to see if it was stuck. It wasn't and she gave a snap like a gunshot! It turns out, she has the one bum eye, so she didn't see us coming but she felt us. Then, when we were all up in her grill, she showed us who was boss.

We're not sure what she was doing there but she was safe and would have no problem reaching the water from her side of the fence. Second clutch nesting?

The next day, I was a little sick but we wanted to walk a little again anyway, so we went to a nearby spot in Norfolk County. It was once again very cloudy and cool, but it wasn't windy. We headed into the woods and hit the trail while it was spitting out. Eh, who cares if we get a bit moist?

This small American Toad almost went unnoticed as we peeked under a board. If he didn't move, we'd never have seen him.


We got to the Alley and I was concentrating hard, hoping to see a Leopard Frog in the grass. They were prevalent last year but we've been skunked here thus far in 2020. Much to my self-disgust, I saw a small Milk Snake head into the path, then turn back. I dove to catch it for photos, had my hand on it... twice... and it got away. I've been wearing gloves for my eczema and I couldn't tell how hard I was or wasn't pressing down. As I always err on the side of "not squishing"; I didn't have enough pressure. No pictures.

I was beating myself up horribly when this appeared on the path in front of us.

OK, that helped.

Evidently, Milks kind of like the overcast, wet weather.

We got to the end of the Alley. As always, we like to check up top by the train tracks before heading back. It was up there that Andrea saw this...

This heartbreaking sight is a demolished Snapper nest. Something dug it up and was either scared off (by us?) or got a mouth of Snapling musk or who knows what. But there was broken eggs, turtle bodies and yolk strewn all over the place. One little body was trying to walk, though, so with this sign of life, we starting inspecting the carnage. Some bodies moved a little when we touched them, some did not. Ants were moving in to munch, so we got serious. If it looked like something might have moved, we put it in Andrea's handy turtle pouch. (She carries it in case we see hatchlings that need moving. This certainly seemed to be the case.) We wound up with a pile of dirty, likely dead, premature baby Snappers.


Thanks to some friends' advice (Chuck, in particular), we took the babies home and cleaned them and removed the dirty, broken shell. Most of the babies still had their yolks attached. The final count was 11 turtles and two eggs.

One of the eggs had a massive dent and was obviously a dud.

The little guy on the left is called Wrappy. When I opened up his shell to clean the dirt, he was still in his Saran Wrap bag. I cleaned the dirt out of the egg shell and put him back in so he'd feel safe. Soon, I saw his claw go slashing through the Saran Wrap, followed by his noggin. He was eager to get into the water, dragging his huge yolk sack.


This is how it looked a few days ago.


We have since lost a couple of hatchlings but the full egg pipped and the baby from inside is a beast... very eager to swim and frolic. Now, 5 days later, there are 9 turtles on our breakfast table. I have worries about 2 of them (sadly, Wrappy being one of them... he swims a bit funny and has a crooked tail) but the other 7 are growing fast and their plastrons are, for the most part, yolk-free. When their belly-buttons are closed, they will be returned to the water near where we found them.

Hopefully, some will survive. Even if it's just one, we'll feel we helped out.