Summer's Last Stand. September 18th and 19th.

 This weird year is winding down, whether we want to admit it or not. Soon, we'll be hitting the local dens to see if any knuckleheaded Garters are braving the cold for a glimpse of sunlight. But until then, we'll keep hitting different spots.

I had recording on Saturday the 18th, but we wanted to get out at least for a little bit so we headed over to "Green Snake Place" to give it a shot. Right on the bay, the wind was pretty stiff and it was cool. We figured flipping would be our only shot at snakes. And White-footed Mice too, for that matter.

Snakes, on the other hand, turned out to be kinda tough. Eventually, after many earnest flips of stone, Andrea spied a small Garter crawling on the path as we moved on.

It was getting a bit warmer and as we got away from the cliffs, snakes were moving. This Garter wouldn't let me get a decent shot, but I fooled him... a little.

Next up was a new one on me... I flipped a rock that had many ants under it, as well as a small DeKay's, the first we'd seen in a while.

The odd thing is, it had a large black ant biting and holding on to it! It had a pretty good sized flap of skin in it's pincers and it was very tough to remove it. I eventually did and put the Deke away under a rock far from that one. Yikes!

No, we saw no Greens (except a likely Green skin... again) but our last sight was a pair of Garters sunning in a pile of sticks well off the path. Check out how orange that one is!

The next day was Sunday (duh) and we got a somewhat late start to our heartbreak place in Plymouth. One more try for Greens, as well as Hogs and Redbells. What could possibly go wrong?

Our first animals this day were Redbacks, always a welcome sight... especially in these days of invasive worms.

There's a spot where I always flip through rocks, though I've never seen anything there. But still I persist. It finally paid off with an absolutely gorgeous Milk, I think only the third we've ever seen at this State Forest in about 10 years.

I like making this woman smile.

Andrea spied this caterpillar from the Apple Sphinx complex. (As always, thank you Teá!)

THE vernal pool (the one immortalized in "When the Pool Runs Red") had plenty of frogs because it is still very full. I was only able to photograph one cooperative Green, however.

Another pretty Redback.

I was enjoying some fresh wintergreen.

On the way back to the car, we saw a Robber Fly eating a Bumblebee. Sad, but we all gotta eat!

Next stop was the bog. I promised myself that I wouldn't photograph every Bullfrog I saw because hey, all of my photos look the same. I would just shoot the fancy or well-posed ones. Oddly enough, first up was a Green, anyway.

A youngish Painted Turtle was there, too.

In complete contrast to the last time we were here, Greens outnumbered Bulls. Also, I'm a liar... the next three shots are of Bulls. I just can't quit you, catesbeianus!

On the path between the bogs, we found a this-year's-model Spotted Salamander. Not a complete surprise, but always a treat!

Finally had a Green striking a good pose!

It's mantis season. We were seeing them in the road, on branches and everywhere. They all seemed to be Chinese Mantids, but we'll take what we can get.

Over by the pond, we saw a few Pickerels, though I could only get a shot of this one.

We headed over to the next section, our place of usual failure and great heartache. It started off nicely with a small, happy-looking Bullfrog.

Then a couple of Fowler's Toads. The first one had 2 of 3 field marks for Fowler's, but not many multiple warts-in-splotches. Possible hybrid, but I'm still calling Fowler's. The second guy is unmistakable!

One thing I haven't yet mentioned... the whole place, every stop, was covered with mushrooms. They grew from the paths, in the sand and everywhere! Some were fresh and some were rotten. These Summer Azures (which we often refer to as harbingers of failure) were enjoying a smelly snack on a new (to us) trail.

Back to the pond (after a long, snakeless hike) we saw some Painted Turtles up basking. That felt good.

One more trail at this spot. We were getting fatigued and it was obvious that we weren't going to get our fancy-pants targets. 

Remember when I said there were tons of mushrooms? There were so many, even the mushrooms were growing mushrooms!

We were talking about how tough it gets some years to see certain species. Like, we don't need a Massachusetts Hognose. This just wasn't going to be our year. That's OK. We saw this Pearl Crescent noshing on some Asters.

With "better luck next year" on our lips, we started back to the car. Then Andrea yelled, "Hog!" You gotta be shittin'.

Well, I'll be damned. I guess you just never know. We never even got a hood. Just got some shots, and watched him crawl off.

First Massachusetts Hog of 2021. Likely the last, as well.

That certainly made our aching, old bones feel better. So did this late Summer sight...

We did make one more stop but it was getting late and turtles had all but packed it in. Our last animal was a mud-puddle Green, the species of the day, for sure.

Tenacity paid off. I do hate trophy-herping, but it does feel nice when you see one of the more elusive species. Not a bad way to end the Summer of 2021, a dicey year at best.

Our Mini-Vacation. Sept 10th thru 12th.

 Y'see, we had big plans to hit Brimfield, a massive antique show in Massachusetts, stay overnight, then hit some spots in middle-Mass the next day. We both took Thursday and Friday off to make that happen. But it poured Thursday, so antiquin' would have to wait a day. We cancelled the hotel, then went shopping Friday instead. The Antique Show was overwhelming and we overdid it.

We were toast by the time we got out of there, but since we were within a few miles of the Rat Snake place, we dipped in for a moment. We didn't expect to see much, and we didn't, but in the half hour that we were dragging our achin' bodies through there, we saw...

A Pickerel Frog (at the base of the tree).

We flipped an ornery Ringneck...

And saw a nice American Toad.

The next day, Saturday, I was surely paying for doing 8 miles in the sun at Brimfield. Headache, body aches, dehydration... yuck. But we wanted to take advantage of the nice day, so we took a trip to a nearby spot in Norfolk County, just to get some air. But before leaving, we saw some wildlife in our dumpster.

He was out cold. I rattled the dumpster and made kissy noises to wake him (I didn't want a heavy trash bag to go flying in and squish him) but he only nestled in even more.

So, we got there and shakily hit the trail. We were looking in a rock pile when, out of the blue (and in the blue), a Milk Snake popped out of nowhere!

We're big fans of instant gratification, especially when we're under the weather.

It was super wet under most of the logs thanks to the recent rain that has been constantly falling of late. That made it good for this nice Leadback that we saw next.

Then came a huge surprise. We'd never seen a Blue-spotted Salamander at this place, but here was that very species. It was also our first one of 2021, thanks to a less than successful "Big Night" in March.

Not too long after that, I started getting very dizzy and having bright lights flash in front of my face. I had to sit for a spell. Andrea was very patient with me. Cool, though... this little American Toad was sitting there next to me.

Gotta say, that helped!

But I couldn't go much further. We did the Alley but I wasn't much help. Andrea found us two lovely Leopard Frogs enjoying mud baths, though.

The next day, Sunday, I was not planning on hiking. Our mini-vacation just hadn't worked out as planned and I still felt dreadful. But Andrea kicked me in the ass and told me to pack myself into the car and drive her to Middlesex County. She said turtles would make me feel better. She slapped my ass and off we went.

We got there late morning and hit the trail while I was still yawning. Andrea punched me in the head and said "git movin', bitch" and I moved forward, swatting at the multitude of gnats that always infest my face at this spot. First up was a Redback, again of the Leadback variety.

At the first spot that we could see water, Painted Turtles were up and sunning.

We spied an absolutely perfect Garter stretched out, grabbing some sun.

Back through the forest of gnats, we got to the next body of water. Hey, a Painter!

The corner that is usually packed with Painters wasn't this time. But we still looked and, as we like to say, the more you look, the more you see This Bullfrog was right below us!

This small Painted Turtle was swimming in front of us.

This Bull had been there the whole time, waiting for us to spot him!

I gotta admit, Andrea was right. This is just what I needed.

Next pond... we watched a small Garter speed off after a small frog, likely a Pickerel, but never saw what happened. This Green Frog wasn't too far from that melee.

This particular pond is pure magic. Turtles and more turtles. You just have to look. Sometimes there will be a Blanding's or two up but this day (and usually) it was absolutely filled with Painters. Check out the shell scar on that first guy!

A few more Paintings...

How lucky we are to have such a beautiful species be so abundant!

The guy on the right was really trying to barrel-roll the Painter up sunning, but he failed. In fact, I saw him fall over backwards in his attempt... plastron to the sky!

Some impressive turtle yoga.

We went up a hill on the trail to get to a wooded area that I enjoy... I can get a look at some secret turtles from up there. On the trail, we found this interesting Redback under a log. That black splotch on his hip area is his coloration, not a scar. Like he's 1/8th Leadback.

Sure enough, the view from above was pretty swell... I got a few nice shots of unsuspecting Painted Turtles.

Somehow, I'd misplaced Andrea while I was shooting those turtles, and I started to panic because she couldn't hear my calls. I hurried toward the main trail in hopes that she'd be there. Am I an asshole because I stopped to photograph this American Toad on my way?

Well, we hooked back up and for sure, this old man needed a sit down. We sat on a bench next to the pond and I just sat there looking. Birds in the distance (a Cooper's Hawk made an attempt at something but came up short) and as I looked harder, I could see shell-shine in the distance. More bonus Painters. All hail my telephoto lens!

As we sat there, this Goldfinch came by a few times for a nice, cool drink.

We headed back to the car. Quickly. The gnats were relentless. We did see one more Green Frog, this time in a mud puddle.

Our last critter was a Pickerel that Andrea spotted.

And that was the end of our mini-vacation. Unfortunately, I started feeling a bit better just in time for the work week. But I had some decent memories to help get me through.

Oh, the Raccoon wasn't still there. He'd exited the dumpster just fine.