September Ends... 9-30-2022

 It never actually hit 60° and it was a little overcast, but we went to our favorite pond and saw a few things. Here they are...

As we often do, we "started" with a Redback. Only about a mile and a half into the hike!!

Where there was sun, it was warm(ish). This gorgeous Garter, spotted by Andrea, was taking advantage of it.

Not far from there, I flipped a stump and we were surprised to see two shoestring Garters!

These two had some almost reddish coloring in places. I'm willing to bet that they're siblings, with the top one being a better hunter.

A Chipmunk was posing nicely, though the lighting was tough. You get the idea, though.

Another Redback. It looked somewhat chocolatey in the field, but the camera calls it pure red.

We got to Ringneck Hill and I flipped a lot of flat rocks but saw nothing. We went on our way. At the base of the hill, I flipped a stone and saw this new Ringneck hatchling.

I should have dismissed the hill and just flipped this one stone!

A metal tube... to roll over or not. Well, I did and we got to see out First of Year Marbled Salamander, a threatened species in Massachusetts.

To say that we rolled the tube back very carefully is an understatement.

We got to a place where we could look at the pond itself, and it was distressing. There is about 10-15 feet of shore where there is usually none. The drought hit this pond very hard this year, which is distressing. A lot of animals call this body of water home.

I was peeking under rocks on the "beach" and startled a Green Frog, who jumped under the next rock. I lifted it, and he wasn't there! Wait... that's a pair of frog feet! He was hiding in a patch of slime. I extricated him for this amusing photograph.

We walked about 5 1/2 miles and admittedly, we didn't see a ton, but we're happy with our finds. The season is nearing its end and we want to enjoy the non-freezing weather as long as we can.

Turtle rescue season is coming soon, a time I both cherish and dread.

Falling into Failure. Sept. 24th and 25th.

I wasn't even going to write this one. It might be time to call it a day on this blog. I love keeping records of the animals we see but if I lose the whole point of being a sort of naturalist, why should I continue?

Anyway, we went back to Plymouth County in pursuit of a 2022 Hognose. We can usually get at least one per year at this spot. We got there early and warmed up with the sun. The cool nights and recent rain had the salamanders happy and Redbacks were our first finds.

Heading towards "our" vernal, Andrea found another Redback, but he was sharing the space with a Spotted Salamander.

"Our" vernal had a lot of life. Some Painters were basking on a tire and there's a Bully in the foreground.


A wee Bull.


A couple of Greens...

From there we, as always, headed to the bog. This is where my world fell apart.

About 20 feet into the bog trail, I saw a Green Snake sunning in the grass. I grabbed it and took it to the dirt of the path for a photo. He was pissed. Musked me. Thrashed. I put my hands over it to try to calm it a bit. After a moment I lifted my hands and he shot off into the grass. Trying to retrieve it would be like trying to get your water back after dumping it down the drain.

In the decade we've been visiting this State Forest, this is the second Green we have encountered. And I lost it with no photo. No safety in-hand shot. Nothing. Obviously, I was very upset.

Too upset, really. 6 days later as I write this, it still stings. Self hatred set in quickly. 

I didn't get over it, but I photographed a few Bullfrogs sitting in the bog.

I admitted to Andrea (the poor thing) that I was on the verge of tears still as we drove to the next spot, our most reliable Hog hike. In my head, even if we saw a Hog, it would be like a consolation prize.

On a dirt path that cuts through a field, an adult, dusky colored Hog skedaddled off the path right in front of me and disappeared into the brush. Like the Green, there was no hope.

A younger me, even a couple of years ago, would have been lucid enough to lunge and catch the Hog for photos, even though it would have played dead. At 60, my lunging days are behind me. I have lost more than a few steps off my game. I'm a failure.

2 for 2 in the loss department. Andrea said I was having an off day. In my heart, I knew I was having an off life lately.

I decided that every photo for the rest of my life will be in-hand. This poor Fowler's was the first.

The last stop produced a few (not in-hand) Painted Turtles.

That was it. It was a quiet ride home. (Though it usually is, with Andrea on her phone.)

But the way I reacted brings up a lot of points. I mean, if one of the few things that gives me joy in life can trigger such negative emotions, should I still do it? And why should it matter? Make the blog look bad? Who gives a fuck? Who even reads it? (I know Matt, Eric, Tim, Mike and Duckhouse do sometimes... thank you. Sorry you have to see this drivel.)

In truth, I'm less bothered by my waning field abilities than my ability to roll with the punches. I'm drugged to the hilt to try to be able to deal with negative feelings... too much so, I feel at times, but evidently, I could use some more. 

I suck at trophy herping. I felt like a total failure... usually something I reserve for work and social life... not life in the field.

I can give myself two nods after all is said and done on that Saturday. I didn't give up and I didn't intentionally hurt myself.

The next day, Sunday the 25th, was cloudy and cool and we almost stayed in. But what the hell... we took a walk around another Plymouth County area in hopes of a Snapling or two. What could possibly go wrong?

As sometimes happens there, we walked about 2 miles before seeing a few Painters.

I was tripping around and scared in a Painter but where I had stepped, I had almost trod upon this Water Snake that Andrea saw.

A nice Bull that Andrea spotted.

The rest of the day was a few Painters. Like I said, it wasn't very nice out so there weren't many critters about.

We ended on this black-eyed Bullfrog. Just a speck of gold at the top of his solid black eyes. He looks like he's trippin' balls.

That's that. I'm not proud of the way I have felt. I'm not happy that I can't control my emotions. I don't want to be like this. But I am. Who cares?

Endless Summer... Ends. 9-17-2022

Massive Saturday on tap... hanging with friends, making music and going to a concert and movie that night. Still, we wanted to get out for a bit. Considering the lovely rain and cooler weather we'd been having, we opted for our close-by spot, the one where we check the dens in the winter. It is a good spot for salamanders and Blue-Spotteds (hybrids) can be found there.

We got there and the sun was warm. We checked an open field first because we'd seen predated turtle nests there before. There could be hatchlings. Or shoestrings, which have also been seen there. No such luck this time, but in the woods next to the field, this beautiful Garter skittered into view.

Heading into the park proper, we checked the big vernal... full of plants and dry, at least where we could see it. No salamanders. We decided to check den spots, even though snakes are scattered. No squamates, but we saw this nice Redback, which turned out to be our only caudate on the day.

Searching through some backwoods trails, we came upon a tarp. I love tarps. I started to unravel it and saw a new Green Frog hiding out in the collected water.

I decided to stop right there as the water was obviously being used and I didn't want to spill any.

Some places were starting to recover their water. Looking off a bridge, we saw this young Bullfrog enjoying some moisture.

We searched all through and around the dens but it was all snakeless. We decided to go up to the neighboring park to look around the rocks and see how the water is doing. We got to a rock that I call Water Snake Rock. One time, there were five Nerodias under it. I flipped it and there was one!

I had to hold the rock so I asked Andrea to move the midsized Water Snake, a size that I find always bites. It did. Right on the finger. Her blood mingled with my tears of laughter. I mean, we knew she was gonna get it!

The brook was looking pretty good, water-wise. This young Painter was sure enjoying his day.

The rocks proved to be fruitful. I stopped to photograph this vivid Garter, not even noticing the second (in the blue) one popping out the front. I finally noticed and got a shot of the two of them.

This pretty Garter was sunning in a bush a foot or two off the ground.

Since we were there, we took a walk to the river. It had been sad the last time we were there, with the river being so low it was mostly mudflats. On the way there, I got a peek through the trees at this stack o' Painters! Extra noggin in lower left corner.

The river was recovering nicely, thanks to the heavy rains of late. Painted Turtles were once again basking on perches that were land-locked last month.

This little fucker looks as happy as a clam!

We had to leave, so we high-stepped it back through the two parks. We made a last minute decision to head back to the car by taking the cemetery path on the last stretch.

We saw a bunch of wooden boxes along the edge, mostly containing square cement slabs. I said to Andrea, "I wonder how many workers lift those up and see snakes!"

The last box was our holy shit moment.

Easily over five feet of Racer. It is the largest snake we have ever seen in Suffolk County. She was pretty chill... her tongue flicked a bit but she wasn't about to give up her precious, secret sunny spot.

Not a bad way to end the hike. Not a bad way to end the summer, which until September had been pretty dire. Seven species of snake (so far) in September. We had seven total snakes in August. Things have certainly been looking up.

Can Lightning Strike Twice? 9-10-2022

Nah, probably not, but this wasn't the worst day, despite my being overly tired. We went to Bristol County to a place that has been ruined by humans but we figured that it being after Labor Day, campers would be gone. Well... not completely.

How tired was I? After driving 30+ miles and hitting the trail, I realized I had on two different shoes.

Oh well... I wasn't about to go back to the car to put on my spares, so onward we went.

Our first sight was a small Green Frog, hopping through the grass. We were very surprised to see that it wasn't a Pickerel!

Now that is a Pickerel. A big, fat Pickerel.

Next up, we flipped a board and zingo,,, our first Milk since June 12th. Nice!

Does this mean we've broken the seal on snakes?

No... this was our only one on the day. But it was out 5th snake species in 24 hours!

Heading towards the possible Snapling area, we saw a couple of small Fowler's hopping along the trail.

The sandy nesting area showed us plenty of predation but no hatchling turtles. Looking out to the pond, we noted (once again) that the water level was low. Mud flats prevailed. Still, I managed to startle a half dozen Painters into the drink. There was a blob out in the water... I zoomed in. Bully for me!

Unfortunately, I missed a new Bull laying on a lily-pad who still had a couple inches of tail.

Some more resilient Painters were basking in the distance.

We continued along the "beach" area, scouring for niblets that might need a hand. No baby turtles. I did see this Pickerel in the woods and I'm quite happy with the photo.

Andrea found another wee Fowler's. We shall call him Sandy.

We got to the middle pond, a spot that used to be so damn good, but has been turned into a human swimming cesspool. Not many folks were there (mercifully) but the water level was too low for me to look for Musks along the unoccupied edge. I did get a little satisfaction with this new Bull with some tail still sprouting.

I saw a Painter head in the same area, so turtles still exist there.

The heat was getting to Andrea so she took a stroll into the cool water.

Before heading around the pond, I shot a couple more young Bulls. They're so cute and they were all over.

One thing that has really pissed me off about them opening this back up for human entertainment is that it was a good spot for Red-bellied Cooters, still an endangered species in Massachusetts. We haven't seen more than a couple since the re-do. This day, even Painters were tough to find in this pond. Eventually, I found a chorus line in the distance...

And this guy had a branch to his own bad self.

There was plenty of muck at the edges of the pond on the far end. That is where I could sometimes find Musks. No sooner had I said to Andrea, "keep an eye on the muck" then we saw this...

Much to our surprise, it was a Red-belly hatchling. I guess that, even with human interruption, the Redbells managed to make some babies after all. Nature wins out. Oddly enough, this is our second Red-belly hatchling on the year. On the month, even. Weird and wonderful.

We were heading back by now. Another spot we stopped at to rest for a bit was just stupid with baby Bullfrogs. We had a dozen in our eyelines at one point, more were everywhere. What fun it is to see them. How great it is that Bulls had such a successful year, even with the drought.

We walked through the woods on the way back, hoping for some more snakes, but we saw none. We did, however, see one Redback. After the salamander drought that we'd had, this is a very welcome sight.

And so it was... we left, got cold drinks, and headed home. Satisfied.