Last Sunday was my burpday and the only thing I really wanted was to get out to see some animals. With Andrea still unable to walk, we tried to think of places where the wheelchair wouldn't kick my butt as I tried to push her around. We went to a spot in Middlesex County where the paths are fairly well beaten down and maintained.
Since we couldn't go about our usual method of one of us on either side, we had to zig-zag the chair to see things. It took some work, but we started to be able to see Painted Turtles, including one enjoying the sun from a beaver mound.
There was a Painter on the shore who wasn't paying much attention, so I procured him for Andrea to get a good look at.
Not much further up the path, we saw an unmistakable sight... young Snapper crossing. About a 3-4"" carapace... the feisty age!
We got out to our turn-around spot and that's where we finally saw a Water Snake. 
The chalkboard at the beginning had said "too many Water Snakes"... we envied their luck, and probably their ability to get up and out earlier in the morning.
This spot had plenty of Painted Turtles if you looked hard enough.
On the other side of this spillway, we finally saw our first frog, a small Bull.
We'd been hearing loads of Bulls and Greens calling but this was the first and only frog that we laid eyes on.
Heading back, we wanted to check another path but knew it was usually pretty grassy and we weren't sure how the chair was going to handle it. It turns out it did OK. It was too late for snakes to still be out but I knew a spot and we decided to make it our turn-around place.
Sure enough, that spot had a stub-tailed female Garter curled up under a rock.
She musked me into next Monday which might account for Andrea's hands-off approach when I put the incredibly chill Garter on her lap.
Now, we have a term... "hamburgers". That's when there is a layer of snake body sticking out from between two rocks. It is a favorite sight of ours but we don't see it too often. But in the same area as Ms. Musk, we saw this:
Not a perfect Garter hamburger, but maybe more of a sloppy Joe. Still, it was a good way to end the hike. I pushed for 3 or 4 miles and did OK. It takes a bit of getting used to but letting her see animals instead of sitting around the house is worth it.
Back at the chalkboard, I changed "too many" to "not enough Water Snakes".
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