What? August is Over?? 8-26-2023

With August coming to a rapid close, we had to get out at least once on this perfect weekend. We headed over to a spot deep into Norfolk County where we've seen baby snakes and turtles during the proper season... and that time is NOW! We got there at about 9:30 and the parking lot was packed! But it was mostly yoga folks who'd just finished up an outdoor workout. *Phew*

We started in and our first sighting was a good sized Water Snake who was skinny. A female who had just popped out babies? They had cleared some brush from the area making it easier to look around.

Next up was a neatly folded, in the blue Garter.

Looking around a loggy area, we saw a large Pickerel and a small American Toad who posed nicely.

At a little inlet at the pond, where we'd startled a huge Water Snake in the past, we didn't startle what was probably the very same snake. This big, fat, moo-moo, mama cow obviously hasn't yet dumped her kids yet. Absolutely massive gal.

We continued down the trail, then found a nice bench overlooking the pond. Rest time #1. Distant Painters were visible from the bench.

We looked in on a vernal pool that still had water. It's safe to say that, by now, everything has emerged. The water was quiet. This beautiful Green Frog was posing nicely next to the pool.

Continuing up the path, we saw a commotion in the grass. This wee American Toad was noisily hopping along.

Be careful, fella. This Garter wasn't far away from the Toad and he was all shakin' head and jutting tongue. This guy was definitely on the search for lunch.

We finally got to the waterfall. I peeked down in our secret spot and saw a small Greenie.

We took rest stop #2 in the bird blind. We saw no birds but enjoyed watching this Eastern Chipmunk flit around through the bushes and branches.

This could have been a great shot but that one Painted Turtle decided to be difficult and hide. This was my only vantage point.

This was going to be our first time going the long way this year. We made it out to a spot where we have often seen Snaplings and young snakes, as well as salamanders. Well, this magical spot had none of that, but we saw a Wood Frog, so that's cool.

Note to self... we'd never seen Crazy Worms here before, but encountered some this time out. And saw no salamanders. Yes, we are concerned.

We saw a big clump of Chicken of the Woods growing at the bottom of a tree. I decided that if I saw any animal nearby, I'd pose it on the fungus. A small American Toad drew the short stick.

Walking through a field, we saw Milkweed and looked closely at it for Monarch caterpillars. We saw a few Milkweed Tussocks and this mess... a slew of "invasive" Oleander aphids with another introduced species, the Asian Lady Beetle, sitting by waiting to indulge in a buffet.

Also up in that Milkweed field, a small Green Frog. Weird... we thought it would have been a Pickerel!

We walked along, took another rest, walked a bit more, and at Rest Stop #4, we sat and had Pinters basking within sight again.

Resuming our hike, we were already well on the way back to the front. We saw this stunning Green Frog sitting on a log that I was going to roll.

If he looks disturbed, it might be because right across the path, this was going on. SKIP THE NEXT TWO PICTURES IF YOU'D LIKE... ANIMAL EATING ANOTHER ANIMAL!!!!!

This Garter had caught a Green by the back leg and was struggling to get it down.

Looks like an Egg-eating Snake!

We let it be. Once he gets past that one armpit, he's home free.

We'd gotten back to the waterfall (coming from the other direction, obviously) and saw a Water Snake basking on the peninsula, a rare sight these past few years due to dogs and brats.

Back towards the front, where the neatly folded Garter was in the morning, there was a new, stub-tailed Garter, also in the blue, resting in a pretzel-shape.

We were almost done, but decided to go peek at the man-made pool. No frogs at this time but we flipped an in-the-blue Ringneck. Despite getting prepared to shed, it is still very iridescent.

Walking back to the car, a Fish Crow was making us chuckle with its ridiculous sounding call. I got a shot of it and it is #80 on the year.

So, that was a pretty good day, though the lack of salamanders concerns me. It was pretty cool in the morning and never got super hot. And we've had a lot of rain. I just don't know what to think.

The next day was gorgeous but we had to stay home and get things done. Bummer.

A Memorable Day with Friends, Old and New. August 20th, 2023

 Our friend Justin, who lives in Georgia, contacted us earlier in the year and said that he would be at a conference in Boston, our home town, in August. He wanted to meet up and bring along some other avid fans of nature and asked where would be a good place. We decided way back then (it was late May) that the best place would be our favorite pond in Norfolk County! Luckily, nothing came up that would cancel our plans and Sunday, August 20th rolled around and we headed for the meet-up, happy that we'd saved this spot for this day. We'd last seen Justin in person 8 years ago, in Arizona.

Twenty people showed up in the parking lot at 7:30 AM. We all got our bearings, Andrea and I said what we could see at this place and we all got on our way. Being such a large group, and some folks weren't going to do the whole hike, we started on the "dam side", going in the opposite direction that Andrea and I usually go. As soon as we hit the water, everybody was in awe of the beautiful habitat. My first picture was of a Bullfrog way out in the lily pads. Oddly enough, it was the only Bull on the day!

Justin had personally scoped out the place the day before and knew what to expect. Being so early, no turtles were seen on the way through but Justin led everyone to some early morning Northern Water Snakes.

This is a trio of Nerodia, basking in the morning sun.

Now, before you start thinking that we're just seeing common stuff, dear treasure herper, many of the people on the hike were from other areas, even Australia and Germany, and these would be lifers.

A chubby American Toad was the next sight.

Andrea somehow spied this big and beautiful Katydid.

The recent rain worked to our advantage. A puddle at the bottom of an uprooted tree had a few Green Frogs in it.

We all saw a Pickerel Frog that was bounding from the path. One gent from Oregon, Paul, had photographed one earlier, too.

We hadn't gotten too far but since we were being so thorough, we'd only made it to the spot where Andrea and I usually begin. We lost more than half of our crew at this point as the time constraint made them unable to continue on. We lost a lot of very nice people, and the rest of us continued on.

Unfortunately, we'd lost our companion from Australia. Justin had tried very hard to get a salamander for her as no cuadates are found in Australia. Justin and I had earlier flipped a Redback but, just like the day before for Andrea and me, it disappeared unphotographed. Not long after the crew turned back, we uncovered a Northern Two-lined Salamander.

The Crazy Worm next to it was one of hundreds seen on the day. I'm hoping their abundance is not related to the rarity of salamanders seen recently. More data needs to be collected.

Another little pool gave us another brilliantly posing Green Frog.

We'd hit a bit of a dry spell. Unfortunately, a DOR Ringneck was seen. Since the group had thinned out, Andrea and I decided to swing by "the dock" area that I would have been uncomfortable taking too many people through. This got us our first Garter Snake of the day.

Back on the trail, this little Pickerel was hiding, but not too well.

We decided again that the "hobo camp" would be OK with the lesser amount of hikers. We went up but struck out. On the way down, however, Paul had spied a Wood Frog, not exactly the kind of frog we'd expected to see on such a hot day in the woods.

Here is Justin getting RIGHT DOWN IN THE ACTION with the Wood Frog! I love this shot!

Right around here, Justin and Paul took a hike up a hill that looked promising for all kinds of things, including Milks. They found a metamorph Spotted Salamander! I didn't go up so I missed out on that one. We lost another hiker or two in their absence. It was getting pretty hot by then. 

One more big, beautiful American Toad.

We had soon gone the entire loop and more hikers called it a day. The few, the proud, the heat-stroked... we decided to check back on the dam to see if any turtles had come up in the intervening hours since we'd last looked. Indeed, if you looked close enough, you'd see some small Painted Turtles were catching some sun.

Paul, who had spotted (heh heh) most of the turtles pointed out another, and it was our target for the day... Spotted Turtle!

He was pretty far out there and I was struggling to get a clear shot. As I did so, most of the rest of the group returned to their cars. I stayed there with Karina, who is from Germany and really wanted to get a shot of a turtle, but this one was too far out for her phone.

The two of us walked on to meet up with Justin and Andrea, who had gone ahead. Walking along, her arm went out to stop me and she made an exclamation sound! The international sign for "DON'T MOVE!" A beautiful Spotted Turtle had just crawled up on a rock right next to us to pose for a photo.

What a treat that was. It then slipped back into the water, leaving us with a treasured moment.

A few more Spotted Turtles were seen along the edges, too.

We caught up to Justin and Andrea and Paul. Andrea pointed out a few Water Snakes. Here is one deep in the bushes. She was massive, still holding on to her babies in her belly.

Andrea and I were walking along and had the privilege of watching a Water Snake just being a Water Snake... swimming along, poking around for a snack.

One more Painter for the road...

Only five of us remained. Justin, Paul, Karina, Andrea and me. Before heading to the car, we saw one last Garter foraging near the end of the dam. Just as I clicked the photo, the sun shone on it and made this last picture a great one.

The five of us went out and had some food and thought back on what a great day it was. Eleven overall species (12 if you count the flattened Ringer), a lot of hard work and truly wonderful people to spend some time with. We're in the beginning stages of planning a trip down to meet up with Justin on his home turf. Andrea and I have never gone on nature walks in Georgia... it will be thrilling and oh, so very different!

Thank you, Justin, for including us and showing everyone a great time!