Pennsylvania Trip 2021. Day 3: May 23rd.

 Last day and we still wanted to see a few species that had eluded us thus far. Red Salamanders would be pretty tough, though not impossible, because we had decided to spend the end of our trip at The Petting Zoo.

Every "herper" on the East Coast knows the Petting Zoo, and especially Timber Wall. A guy who we talked to in a parking lot the day before even knew of the Timber Wall. But Timbers weren't the top of our list. In lieu of Red Sals, we hoped to see Copperheads, Rat Snakes and Five-lined Skinks, the last of which is not present in Massachusetts (and the other two are listed as Endangered in MA). The Petting Zoo is a good place to see all of those. On the way there, we saw a White-tailed Deer in an outlet that we'd wanted to check out all weekend.

We got to the Petting Zoo at about 7:30-8 o'clock and saw that a marathon was running along the path. One was ending and another was starting 26 miles out. That's OK... it's a fairly busy place anyway. We got out of the path for a while to look around. Our first sighting was a Timber that saw us first. We got quite the rattle.

The sun was just starting to warm the area and we next saw this wee Timber safely sunning. You can't see his nose or the tiny rattle-nub he probably has, but it looks like he'll grow up to be quite a beauty.

Next up, we checked the Five-lined Skink off of our list with this young blue-tailed looker!

We went back down to the path. Now all of you trophy herpers are saying, "No! Stay up there!" No, we wanted some shade and to check the wall. It's not all about quantity. At my age, comfort and surviving the vacation is more important!

So, we were going along peeking at the wall and inspecting the surroundings when a dude on a bike about 20 feet up the path called to us and asked if we knew snakes. We said yes. He said he thought so, the way we were looking at the wall. He said," What is this? I'm pretty sure it's not a Garter Snake." We ran up to him.

Nope, not a Garter. We told him he'd just checked Copperheads off of our list and talked to him about the species while we photographed the animal soaking up warmth from the path. Remember, there was a marathon going on, too, and runners were coming by! We waved them away from the snake (and got many "thank you"s... they know this place) and moved him off the path to safety with a stick.

We returned to the wall and almost immediately saw a small Copper.

It had warmed up by this point and Skinks were out and about in force.

This red-headed male was relentlessly pursuing this female...

We finally made it to the Timber area, the place everybody knows will give you rattlesnakes. I climbed up and yes, there was one gorgeous snake there...

But much to my dismay, the young "herpers" had ripped up all of the wood that the snakes hide in and it was piled and strewn all about. A sure fire place to see and photograph wild rattlesnakes, but that just wasn't enough. It is my opinion that these fuck-wads that do this give no shits about the animals; they are just adrenaline junkies who like to fuck with venomous snakes. Fuck them, and fuck you if you're somebody that does that. They have all but ruined a national treasure. Next time you're at the Petting Zoo, if you see somebody up there and they don't have a camera, go up and beat the fuck out of them. And tell them I hate them before they pass out or die.

That really did piss me off, but we carried on because we wanted to see a Rat Snake. We were toast and still had at least a 5 1/2 drive ahead of us after hiking the 3 1/2 miles back to the car. (Turned out to be more like 7 1/2 hours in the car with the traffic, but that's neither here nor there.)

Once again, the kindness of strangers came through to brighten my mood. About 20 feet in front of us again, a different guy on a bike yelled to us, "hey- you guys want to see a Rat Snake?" Umm, yes! It's the last thing on our list! And did he have a stunner there next to the path! Pure perfection!

We talked for a while and this guy was cool. He bikes these places, always keeping an eye out for snakes, which he loves. Man, we need more folks like him around. He was awesome and I feel badly that he took off before we watched the Rat s l o w l y slide, inch by inch, into a tiny hole, likely a chipmunk hole. It looked a little something like this:

Video by Andrea

It was OK to turn back now, so we did. It became a mammal walk for a while. Andrea saw a face keep popping out of a hole (similar to the one just used by the Rat); it was a Chipmunk checking to see if the coast was clear. Picture of the day by Andrea!

We went down to the water for a bit to cool off. While down there, I couldn't resist flipping a little, even though my kidneys hurt from over-flipping the day before. To my surprise, I flipped a little White-footed Mouse!

Back up to the path and the wall, Andrea made a hilarious discovery. A hole full of Nerodia. Looks like a female and four admirers. Not enough room for all of them, but they didn't care. Tell me that guy in the middle isn't stuck!

We'd picked up our pace (as best we could) because I didn't want to get home super-late. But we still had time to see 5-Lines flitting about.

Andrea stopped, staring at the wall... "Is that...?" I looked and all I saw was a tiny orange lima bean.

A wee Copper-bean.

I was already toast and not looking forward to the drive. This male Skink was making me jealous.

We stopped for a few moments when we saw this young Red-tail swoop into a tree with lunch (a small fish?) and eat it. I took many shots but couldn't quite figure out what he had. This is the last photo... "You get yer shot yet, bru?"

Our last photo was another beautiful male Five-lined Skink. I felt so good to see lizards!

So that was our quick and off-the-cuff trip for my birthday. I wish we could have met up with more friends, but that will have to wait until next year, when we all know how this Covid thing will have turned out. Still, I'm glad we got to see Bob (fully vaxxed) and spent a day with him. The trip was a roaring success, animal-wise. Only the Red Salamander evaded us. 23 species of reptile and amphibian, plus I added 6 bird species. The drive home caused a melt-down or two, but I got my shit together and made it through the grueling traffic. I REGRET NOTHING!