Home Cookin'... June 2nd, 5th and 6th.

 Our first weekend home after our PA trip was cold and rainy so we didn't bother going out. But by Wednesday, June 2nd, the temps were back up and we were itching to get out, so we took a hike over to a nearby Norfolk County spot to look around.

It was pretty warm but being overcast and nearing dusk, we thought our chances might be OK. We didn't really see much, though. In fact, we saw no animals until we got to the alley and saw this Green Frog in a mud-puddle!

Our only other sighting was a Water Snake that was in the river right next to where we were standing.

The scenery, however, is always beautiful to me.

That Saturday was hot. 90s hot. We met some friends in Boston for lunch; they're from Brooklyn and we'd never met in person. It was wonderful! After lunch, we decided that since we were in Boston, we'd check out the gardens down by the baseball park to see if the Italian Wall Lizards survived last winter. I thought about them a lot during the icy-cold months.

Our first encounter was with a small Bullfrog in one of the gardens' pools.

The guy tending that garden was tickled to have a frog in his pool. He'd had tadpoles in there before, so he wasn't surprised. He said he'd seen tons of lizards this year. Encouraged, we moved on.

This fledgling Common Grackle kept us at bay... we took another path so as to not disturb it.

We did see some lizards. We'd forgotten how incredibly fast they are. Finally, I got a shot of a good sized one through the chain link fence.

This would have been a great shot except I could only get his tail in focus. Oh well... better than nothing. I think that flower thwarted me.

This was a big, chubby one, perhaps gravid, that had lost it's tail.

We finished up with this gorgeous specimen that Andrea spotted. It was nice enough to pose for us for a while. Also missing a bit of tail, which is already regenerating.

So, yeah... the Italian Wall Lizards of Boston are doing just fine!

The next day was supposed to be more of the same... heatwave! Mid-90s. The plan was to go to Bristol County to look for Musk Turtles, a nice way to cool down. We left very early and got to the first spot at about 8 AM. The garden was still cool when I flipped this shoestring Garter.

That's a nice way to start the day.

We didn't do our usual hike at this spot; we stayed close to the river. At a little inlet that we said looked good for Snappers, we saw a Snapper. Imagine that! We were tipped off by a floating branch moving through the water... he had one stuck to himself.

An absolutely stunning American Toad.

At the next inlet, Andrea spied a gorgeous Garter.

We stopped off at one more place on the way to Musk Lake. We saw a Painted Turtle that had just got up to bask. It was the first Painter we had seen in weeks! Such a welcome sight.

Walking along a wall next to the river, we saw this gorgeous and massive Nerodia gal catching some sun... baking her babies.

I got into the water to walk around the side of the wall and looked into the opening... the proud papa (?) was there looking out. That's her huge noggin in the background.

We were taking one last look around and Andrea pointed out this nest. We've been told the birds are baby Common Grackles... a far cry from the fledgling we saw the day before!

As we were leaving, a guy and his wife and two daughters mentioned a Water Snake to us that they'd seen at the entrance. Not a moccasin, a Water Snake. We thanked him for the tip and told them of the lady and gent snakes along the wall. This is their snake... poking his noggin out into the sun, making sure the coast is clear.

It was pretty darn hot now and we headed to our destination... Musk Turtle Spot. We still hadn't seen one yet this year.

On the way, Andrea reminded me that we've seen a DOR Spotted Turtle on this road before and we should keep our eyes open. It didn't take much effort to see the tragedy this time... a massive turtle lay on the side of the road with a crushed shell. We pulled over and assessed the damage. Eggs and yolks were all over, along with the gore. The homeowner came out and said the turtle had been up to her house the night before looking to lay and got spooked (she had a yappy dog, perhaps the spooker) and headed back, when she was hit. We looked to see if any eggs were good. I reached into her and pulled a "fresh" one out of her saran wrap and we took a dented one and a saran wrap cased one that was in the dirt. We moved the body off of the street and into the woods where something will enjoy the lunch.

So, yeah... this was a bummer. We took the 3 eggs and will see what we can do.

At the lake itself, we started looking at the water's edge. This Bullfrog wished us luck.

The Herring that we saw swimming upstream last month were here in force.

We had a bit of a problem looking for Musks... there was an obscene amount of pollen. It has flown into the water from all around the lake and blown right into our Musk spot. It was so thick that we could smell it baking on top of the water.

That's revolting. I've never seen it like that before.

We went over to the other side of the road where there wasn't so much pollen. There was something floating about 20 feet out... I was pretty surprised to see a Bullfrog face when I looked at my picture!

There were hundreds of these Banded Killifish flitting all over the edge of the pond. Many thanks to my friend Mike for the ID... I'm trying to learn my fish but I suck at it and I seem to bother him a lot!

I went back over to the pollen side one more time, in hopes of finding a spot where we could find a Musk. No turtles, but this Water Snake was showing just how bad the green-goop was.

We poked around a bit more when we saw some people fishing over by the pollen snake. On the way back to the area, I saw this Water Snake on the clean side.

The guys that were fishing were cool. They were throwing shiners to the Water Snake and we saw it eat one of them. Two groups of humans in one day who are cool about snakes. That is a rare thing indeed.

That helped us deal with the smashed turtle situation. I mean, that was a huge turtle... impossible to not see when you're driving along. Or I would think so, anyway. 

When we got home, we tended to the eggs. Once I'd opened it, I saw that the one in the dirty saran wrap egg was cracked, so that one was discarded. We had one clean one and one dented one. We have them on moist vermiculite in the laundry room right now and they look OK so far, though we admit that this is an entirely new endeavor for us. Can't hurt to try though. I'll update when I can.