So Many Miles Put Between Us! August 12th and 19th

 We had only seen ONE snake in all of August. yes, it was a tough-to-see Green, but where have all of the Garters and Water Snakes been? We headed out on Saturday, August 12th to a nearby spot in Norfolk County. We hadn't yet been because of Andrea's ankle; the place is super rooty on the trails. We got there early and had an enjoyable hike. We saw a Green Frog out in the sun on the first boardwalk.

Believe it or not, that was our one reptile/ amphibian for the entire 5 mile-plus hike. The weather was fine, our eyes were working fine, but we just didn't score. A few other observations, however...

A Red-spotted Purple Butterfly posed nicely.

Many puddles were seen on the main trail on the alley. Most of them had Mosquito larvae in them. This one was absolutely full of them. Yeah, I know... mosquitoes aren't my favorite things either but you have to admire the success they're having in a mudpuddle.

The last sight was an interesting one. This Song Sparrow was all puffed out in the direct sun, oblivious to us and really concentrating. He was "sunning", a way to get sunlight onto the skin under the feathers to keep parasites under control. Very cool.

5+ miles for a Green Frog. We say it was worth it.

My band played that night and we were just too knackered the next morning to get out and about. Oops. Our next nature walk was in Bristol County the following Saturday, the 19th. We wanted to hit an easy Garter spot. No Garter August had to stop!

Our first stop, the Fragrance Garden is a sure-fire Garteriffic place! Other than being dive-bombed from above by a mysterious Pickerel Frog (which I missed a photo of), we struck out. In fact, we were two miles in before we finally saw our first cold-blooded critter, a very small American Toad.

Distant Painters were seen out on the river.

At the Waterfall, Swans had most of the best perching spots but these two Painters had a decent place.

It should be noted here that Andrea and I had by this time both flipped Redbacks, a species we haven't photographed since April. Well, we still haven't. They Reef-geckoed right into oblivion.

We did finally get a Pickerel on the camera.

We flipped a chubby, dark American Toad on the way back.

Going back to the car, we hit the Fragrance Garden one more time. Lo and behold, an August Garter!

*whew* Nice to know they still exist!

From there, we went across town to another park, if only to look at a discarded picnic-table area where we've seen a lot of snakes in the past. On the way to that area, we saw another new Pickerel at the pond's edge.

A small Fowler's Toad was on the path.

Our snake spot was empty. It was pretty hot by that time so we weren't surprised. In the cool shade, this slug (Red Snail? Red Slug? Couldn't get a proper ID) had his eyes out, enjoying a damp crawl.

From there, we headed into Plymouth County to an old mill that is great for turtles and Water Snakes. We saw nothing. The water was rushing like mad because of all of the rain we've been having. So we headed over to Musk Turtle Spot.

We looked around but found no turtles but there was a Water Snake nestled into the wall next to the reservoir.

Thus ended our Saturday World Tour of Norfolk and Bristol Counties. Not horrible. It was nice to finally see a couple of snakes, even though we had to work really hard for it. Eh, no pain no gain.