Post Vacation Blues. July 10th and 16th.

 It's hard to get back to reality after a wonderful, relaxing vacation. We still had a couple of days before going back to work. We went out on Sunday to one of our favorite spots in Plymouth County. It was going to be warm and sunny and we knew we'd see turtles.

Of course, it was warmer than we'd expected and most of the turtles we saw right away, Spotteds and Painteds, slid into the water as we walked by. This big Bullfrog finally threw us a bone.

A Spotted that took a dive surfaced again and I got a shot.

A small Painter didn't seem to mind our presence.

You don't see many prettier Bulls than this green guy.

We weren't seeing tons of turtles. Mostly, they were in the distance and somewhat in the water. Here's a few Painters.

Andrea spied a Fowler's Toad.

The story of the day turned out not to be turtles but Blackberries. We ate tons of them. Delicious.

A stoned looking Green Frog.

This is what I saw behind me for much of the day... Andrea inspecting berry bushes.

We made it to the big pond and had a sit-down. Turtles were basking in the distance. A line of Painters...

A big Redbelly flanked by Painters.

More Painterly sights.

We got to a good fishing spot and there was a couple of young men fishing. They were cool and we talked about nature and stuff. They mentioned that the only snake they'd seen was a "big black one" who was under a particular rock. I looked at the rock. Nothing. Then a head popped out. Eventually all 3 1/2 feet of this beautiful mama Water Snake popped out.

One of them pulled in a gorgeous Yellow Perch and held it for me to photograph before throwing it back. I decided to delete the photo after all... I was uncomfortable seeing it hanging there. Instead, I offer a couple of Bluegills.

The rest of the day was Painters.

While this might not have been a killer day in the field, it was nice and we got to see a lot of turtles and meet some good folks. If I had known then that I wouldn't get out in earnest for a few weeks, I might have appreciated it more.

The next week, we had obligations and couldn't get out. One of them, however, was within a mile of a big Garter spot we know of up near New Hampshire. We had a chance to take a look after the party (my pal Ryan is getting hitched) and discovered something interesting...

Every time we had gone there, it was May and the field was open and had lots of nice flipping. In July, it is practically a forest. No Garters for me. A couple of distant basking Painters was all I could spot.

Further on, I got a noggin.

We enjoyed watching some Bumblebees packing their pockets with pollen.

That's it for the entire weekend. And since then, we have been in a heatwave. Even early morning hikes are too hot for the critters. I'm typing this on the following Sunday and have only one Fowler's Toad to report. I doubt we'll go out today at all... 96° and humid. Why bother?

2022 continues to vex me.