Limping into June! 6-4 and 6-9.

Predicting the weather this June has been quite difficult. Sunday the 4th was cold. Low 50s. We didn't want to be stuck in the house, so Andrea crutched to the car and we went to the local cemetery to do some birding. Of course, I had to check the pond, but we figured if we'd see any turtles, it would be a Red-ear. They seem to be the most cold tolerant. We were right.

We saw a pair of young women standing near the edge of the pond, aiming their cameras and smiling and that could only mean one thing... friendly Snapper! Again, we were right.

Whitey? Maybe!

We did see some birds. This Killdeer (#68) seemed out of place as we usually see them in open fields near woods but we saw two, so it looks like we'll have to watch our step when we return!

We decided to drive over to "the other pond" to see if any frogs were up. On the way there, at the far end of that first pond, I saw this sticking up from the "road".

We saw no frogs at the other pond, but Andrea did some good crutch walking, moving quickly and painlessly. We headed back to leave, peeking at the first pond one more time. There was a woman and her kid on one edge and from the car, we could see splashing and turtle shell activity, so we joined them.

There was a bunch of turtles there. Some were begging food (we had none) and some were gettin' busy. This Red-ear was one of the former.

Here are some of the Snappers that were vying for either the female or territory. Are any of them Whitey? As it turns out, there are three that have white on their faces. To be completely honest, unless he comes right out to us, we can't tell which is him.

This is the smallest one and we suspect she is a female.

For your Painted pleasure.

OK, now THIS one IS Whitey. No mistaking it. He came right out of the water hoping for a snack. What a wondrous, beautiful beast! He is absolutely massive. Must be all of those handouts.

Not a bad Sunday afternoon. We had six Snappers in sight at one point. The kid said he'd had seven the previous week! What a pond!

Andrea saw the doctor on Monday the 5th and her instructions were to wean herself off of the crutches and eventually change from the boot to a brace. The crutches were gone by Wednesday. She absolutely kicks ass.

Friday night was rainy. And barely 50°. Since we were too lazy to drive to Plymouth to cruise in the rain last year, we got our butts in gear to do that very thing. We went out to dinner first (date night!) then drove 45 miles to the State Forest. It was no longer raining, unfortunately, but the roads were wet. We figured we'd score bigtime! But we didn't. In fact, we saw nothing until we hit our turn-around spot and I got out to "look for Wood Frogs" and saw our First of Year Fowler's Toad on a path. Target #1 achieved.

I took him to show Andrea and he promptly jumped into the car. I found him under some trash on the floor of the back seat. Damned if I didn't laugh.

We saw a Park Ranger (who wondered what the hell we were doing, but gave us full permission once we told her) and she said frogs were out in force, but she was probably driving around during the rain.

Someone was coming up behind me, so I pulled over and as I did, I saw a set of eyes reflecting! Scared shitless that I was going to squish something, I got a tire on either side and hoped he didn't hop. Luckily he didn't and I got a shot of this beautiful Bullfrog.

I love how he looks coked-out with his night-time eyes.

We already considered the drive worth it when we saw the Fowler's and the Bull added to our happiness. Making things even better, we saw one more animal, our other anuran target, a Gray Tree Frog, the First of the Year.

90 mile round trip for 3 animals? Yessiree! Worth every inch!