Beating the Heat. 7-23-2023

 Last year was dry and hot. Too hot to do much and so dry that things were in danger of dying out due to drought. This year is also very hot, but we have tons of rain. Record breaking rain. While many folks complain, I say "let it rain, baby"! No dried out vernal pools this year. No thirsty snakes. We'd hoped to take advantage of the moistness of it all and head into Essex County to look for salamanders and snakes.

Of course, true to form, we got a late start, but when we got there, we remembered that much of the trail was shaded and it wasn't horribly hot in the shade. There were, however, 'skeeters. But, much to our joy, there were frogs, too. Our first find was a small Pickerel.

This year's toads were seen as well... here's a miniscule American Toad.

How about a Green Frog on the edge of a pool?

I rolled a log over and startled this small Wolf Spider up on to my shoe.

We got to a spot overlooking the water and saw plenty of turtle noggins poking out. This Painter was swimming when I snapped.

Back to the trail, a Green in a mud puddle. No shame, just keeping cool.

I'd been hoping for a large adult Pickerel. This upper-medium-sized one was good enough.

Another spot overlooking the water was very productive for Painted Turtles.

A Red Admiral landed in front of me and begged for a photo. How could I say no?!

A cool Painter.

The spots that had been best for snakes in the past were right out in the scalding sun this time. Finally, in the dappled shade next to a pond, a slim Garter was spotted.

Down the hilly path (Andrea did great with just her brace on) and on to the next pond. This one is usually filled with duckweed. We noticed that, incredibly, one side of the pond was dry. Being next to a reservoir, it's possible that it had been dammed up or something. When we did get to the watery part, it was Painted Turtle Mecca.

We got over to the path that overlooks the reservoir, usually a great spot for Water Snakes. The walk was mostly in the shade so we'd be comfortable as we sought Nerodia. We finally saw one near the end but she was a sneaky snake and I only got crap photos. (I didn't keep any of them, but hold on...) We got to the turn around point and... get this... we turned around! Barely starting back, we saw a large Water Snake that looked exactly like this one.

Is that the same gal that I'd just struggled to get a shot of? No, THIS one is she! (I recognised the dirt on her face!)

And then, right next to her was one of the biggest Water Snakes I'd ever seen. This one was as big around as my wrist. And my wrist is big. Look at that head!

^ That was a tough-assed picture to get, by the way.

The, right next to her was another large Nerodia!

We had entered the Water Snake Sweepstakes and won! Four large-to-massive gals all in a row. You could back up and see all four at once. Tremendously cool.

From there on, it was just a nice walk back through nature. I saw a small Wood Frog at one point that handed me my ass, as well as another Garter that did the same. We finally sat down near the water and just enjoyed watching Painted Turtles enjoying the summer with us

Noggins.

And that is how the day ended. We got ice cream afterwards. I got Peach and Andrea, naturally, got Totally Turtle.