Catch as catch can. Not much time left to see things. On Sunday, October 2nd, we hit the local spot in hopes of seeing some salamanders, specifically Blue Spotteds. It was cold, it never hit 60° but the sun was warm. It seemed like a good time to check the den sites, too.
Our first encounter was a Red-Chocolate flip.
Our second sight was a wee, This Year's Model Ringneck. That was a surprise!
Even more surprising was this nicely folded Garter under a log.
He got quite feisty when we moved him to replace the log.
Lastly for that cold and windy day, Red-Lead flip.
We didn't get out again until the following Friday. It was going to be scraping 70° and sunny so we threw caution to the wind and hit our heartbreak spot in Plymouth County. Last Call for Hoggies!
Spoiler alert... we struck out on all snakes, even though it was plenty warm and sunny. We started out with a myriad of different colored Redbacks.
How can anyone not be impressed by the beauty and variation on these super-common guys? Those are slug eggs in the last shot, not Redback eggs.
We headed down to "our" vernal. It has swelled a bit more with the recent rains. This Bullfrog was enjoying the warm water of the edge.
This Painted tyke was grabbing as much October sun as he could get.
A Green Frog that I surprised with a flip.
A couple more Bulls from the vernal...
It has been an overall shitty year but it has, I must confess, been an excellent Bullfrog year!
On the way back to the car, we had to side-step this Chinese Mantis who was crossing the path.
There were dozens of Turbulent Phosphilas crawling around. Quite a beautiful 'pillar.
We hit the bogs next. Oddly enough, we saw no frogs in there. We didn't even hear any. The season is getting late... some might have tucked in already. No frogs, no turtles, no snakes. Here is a picture of Andrea blazing a trail through the woods on an overgrown path.
We stopped at our usual sit-down spot. I peeled off some skin and threw it into the water. This Bluegill ate it. It now has the taste of human flesh. It is my first step in creating a human-eating sunfish.
From there, we took our usual route and did two miles of our best Hog trails. Nothing. Not even a toad. Day over. In fact, we called it... the last attempt. (As it turns out, it's supposed to be nice this upcoming weekend so we will make one more useless attempt.)
The next day, Saturday the 8th, it was cold again. Mid 50s. But we took a noon-time walk along a Norfolk County trail that gets a lot of sun. We hoped for a snake sighting or, even more so, a Northern Leopard Frog. Well, we saw none. At our turn-around point, we watched a couple of young Ospreys hunting. Here is one of them...
Heading back, Andrea asked if I wanted to look "on the other side of the tunnel"... I said no, it's too cold. It's not like we'd see anything in the woods. Then, I thought, well, maybe we can see a Redback, so we went through...
Just on the other side of the tunnel, in a patch of sun, we saw a skinny Garter swaying in the warmth. Andrea, once again, was right.
Can I get a close-up on that?
We went in a little more. We did get that Redback I'd thought about.
Sunday, the 9th... we hit up a spot in Middlesex County that used to be a stronghold for Leopard Frogs. We hadn't seen a frog there this year in any of our visits, Leopard or otherwise. We hoped for some better luck this time. It was another "warm in the sun" kind of day.
We were devastated by how dry the main wetland was. I know they control the water sometimes but there was just a swath of water going through the middle of this massive wetland. We wondered if everything had moved to the nearby river. When we got to the river, we saw that it was the case. Painters were up and basking.
I had just missed a Garter, who slowly made its way under a rock when I saw a lovely one basking in a nearby patch of sunlight.
As she slid off, she was followed by a bright yellow guy, flowing her closely.
Further on, I flipped a stone and had a brand-spankin' new baby Water Snake. Having learned my lesson, I got an in-hand shot before trying to get fancy.
Here it is, in all of its miniature glory!
This slim stick of a Garter is getting as much sun an squamately possible.
Holy shit! An Ostrich!
This GBH was absolutely massive. Nice hamhocks!
We got to our turn-around point, just wanted to check a path that goes between two ponds. Now, these ponds were full. Very full. I just can't figure out why the main wetlands was so... not wet. There was a Water Snake making its way through the brush over here.
I got a secret Painter basking. It was a through-the-trees shot that came out pretty OK.
Never had we seen these ponds so full. The water has pouring from one pond to the other, flooding the path.
I got soakers slogging through it, hoping to see something but I didn't, so we turned back.
We'd definitely had our lucky-window. The walk back was animal-free. And it brings up a major worry...
This used to be a Northern Leopard stronghold. We haven't seen one here in two years. No frogs at all this year at this (formerly) great spot. I know they have used chemicals to combat some invasive plants or algae or something. Let's hope they didn't devastate the entire Salientia group in the area.
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