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.