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!!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment