We stayed close and went to our oldest, longtime favorite spot on a cool Sunday morning. The last time at this Norfolk County spot, we saw but one Garter Snake. Only. No turtles, frogs or salamanders. But that was a hot summer day, this was a cool early Autumn day.
The path going in was shaded and not as busy as we'd expected. There were other humans there but not loud, writhing throngs of them. Our first animal was this cozy looking Garter stretched out next to a log. His head was swaying as he looked for food.
Next up was an elusive Pickerel who hopped into the brush, trying to elude my camera. Gotcha, sucker!
We went for quite a while after that with no animal sightings. We were exploring the unused-in-2020 campground and finally flipped a feisty little Garter shoestring under a garbage can lid. Is this what the trophy herpers refer to as a garbage snake? Garbage Snake is angry!
I got all the way up to #8 on my 2020 Grasshopper Project when Andrea spotted this female Conehead (Neoconocephalus retusus). Check out that ovipositor, man!
We were leaving the campground when Andrea saw a little noggin back up under a root... the small American Toad was wisely staying away from our stepping feet.
We carried on for a while, checking under logs and keeping our eyes peeled, but went through another spell of no animals. Nearing the Hobo Camp, we flipped this small but bright Spotted Salamander.
The Hobo Camp was a bust but after getting back to the trail, we flipped a perfect Redback.
Our next flipped salamander was a pretty special one, a rare (in the state) Marbled, right off the path.
Our Cuadata Count increased when we next flipped a small Eft. We'd almost missed this little orange bugger.
Back to the pond, we poked around the water's edge for a while, looking for Nerodia and frogs. On a distant rock, our only turtle of the day was up practicing yoga... a smiling Painter.
Down on the beach, a wee shoestring Garter was showing me who is boss.
Under a dock, a tangle of Garters were up to shenanigans. There are likely three snakes showing here. I'm not sure what is what.
Pickerel on the edge of pond. My favorite Springsteen record.
This Pickerel was huge... just about as big as I've ever seen them. Notice how he makes my size 12s look smaller.
Walking back through the woods, this super-chill Garter was posing way too nicely.
Another Pickerel, this time in the wooded area.
We finished up the day, and thus the month, with a couple of Redbacks... a red and a leadback morph.
You never know what date the last sighting of certain species will be in a year. Some of these are likely the last 2020 sightings. Toads usually are quick to tuck themselves in for the winter (they're smart). As I write this (very late, I know), it is October 9th and we have seen zero reptiles or amphibians on the month. We hope to remedy that over the weekend, but until then, these are our last sightings.
But with this day and the day before (previous post), we saw 15 different species over that weekend. That ain't too bad, baby.
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