Ending the Summer that Never Was. Sept. 15th and 17th

I thought Andrea was still on half-day Fridays. Nope. So my plans of an after work hike vanished into thin air. But she said "why not go visit the turtles on my lunch break?" So that's what we did. We were warned of a massive storm coming Saturday (the next day) and figured we'd be inside then.

It seems the turtles were wise to the upcoming turmoil because we didn't see any basking and only a few noggins were popping up at all. We did see a Snapper... Whitey?... but he blew us off. This Painted Turtle was the first one I got my camera on.

This GBH looks like I usually feel.

On the far side of the pond, we finally saw a couple of basking Painters. No Red-ears... weird.

The uncooperative Snappers remained uncooperative. Got this one eventually...

The next day, it did storm a little but it was much less that predicted. But with the rain and cooler temps, we decided to take a quick local hike on Sunday in Norfolk County. We chose a trail that had potential for four First-of-Years... Coppers, Racers, Marbleds and one other that we'd forgotten about until we saw it.

Spotted Salamander metamorphs were the Salamander du jour!

It was then that we flipped a First-of-Year... hard to believe that it took until September but that is indicative of 2023 for us. This is the FOY Red-spotted Newt of any phase... a Red Eft.

Handsome fella, too.

The log next to the Eft, the very next flip, was our FOY Marbled.

They were definitely a target so we were pretty happy.

This Green Frog made his presence known by hopping into the drink in front of me.

Another new Spotted!

This is NOT a new Spotted Sal!

We hunted around the rocks and lower area around the Coppertop spot but respected the rule (that we've heard tell about) about not going near the densite. We did a pretty thorough search at low and medium points, but came up empty for all snakes. But we can't feel bad... we gave it our best effort and we had seen a lot of nice salamanders.

This scary bat-monster face in a log mirrors how our feet/ankles were feeling after a while.

One complaint... we saw no Redbacks. What I used to call the most common land vertebrae in the area has become very tough to see with any regularity. This is my worry for 2023. Last year it was the absence of Fowler's Toads at Myles Standish. They are plentiful this year. Hopefully, our beloved Plethodons will be abundant again soon.

Pre-Brimfield Wanderings. 9-9-2023

We headed back to Brimfield for the September antique show. We always enjoy hunting for crap and eating poorly. But it wouldn't be a Brimfield show if we didn't go to visit the Magic Tree in Sturbridge. We left super early and got to the tree by 8:30 AM. No Rats, in fact that tree might not be suitable at all anymore for Rat Snake needs. So, we're still ZERO on the year for Rats. I doubt we'll try again.

To be fair, this is what Walker Pond looked like.

Cool, overcast and the day after a rainy day. What could we possibly see? AMPHIBIANS!! First up was a Bullfrog hopping through the grass.

Next, a Green Frog.

Our snake flipping spots were coming up empty but we felt very fortunate to see a Redback. They have been tough since the Spring.

We saw a Peeper hop... I got this shot.

He hopped up to some star moss and I figured I could get a better shot.

Presto-changeo... this is a different Peeper!

We checked the tree some more. Next to it, this Wood Frog hopped conspicuously...

Then, another Peeper. Good Peeper day... it has been a while since we'd been able to say that.

Driving out, we finally added a reptile. This tenacious Painted Turtle was determined to sun himself, even without sun.

And that was that. We enjoyed seeing these guys and then we enjoyed our walk (limp) around Brimfield.

S is for September, Salamanders and Shoestrings Part Two. 9-2-2023

Two days in a row with decent weather? Heck, yeah! We planned the second day in a row and decided to go to Plymouth County to look for Hogs. There, if we fail, we have lots of other stuff we can see. We headed out super-early and got there by 8:30 AM, traffic and all.

Our first sighting was a Broad-winged Hawk, #81 on the year and Lifer #204. Not too shabby! (Of course, I thought it was a Coopers at first.)

Luck was certainly on our side because the first thing we saw was a Redbelly that Andrea flipped! It was snoozing under some wood.

To give you an idea of where the sun was, check out the shadow cast by this Fowler's.

This one was all tucked in... no chance for a shadow.

We made our way down to "our" vernal. A turtle plopped in long before we reached it, along with dozens of frantic frogs. By the time we got there it was quiet but I rolled a log next to the pool and saw two brand-spankin' new Spotted Salamanders.

Here they are next to a penny.

Not a bad first stop.

Next up, the bogs. A little Pickerel tried to give me the slip but I  got him!

A Bull in the bog.

This Pickerel was one of the biggest we've seen this year. He made no attempt to hide.

Some more Bullfrogs...

Andrea deftly got past a fallen tree.

We went to our regular sit-down spot for a rest, overlooking a beautiful pond. This Pickerel was right at our feet the entire time we sat there.

We watched sunfish and this Largemouth Bass who was bullying them.

After the nice rest, we got back on the bog trail and almost immediately, I saw a tiny squiggle. I got my hand out in front of it before it hit the grass and corralled it into my hand. Shoestring Ribbon. I can't think of a more fragile snake!

On the way back to the car, we saw a Green Frog.

There was a golf ball with a face drawn on it that amused me. When this large (Tachnid?) Fly landed on it, I couldn't resist.

So, we'd been having a pretty good day. What could possibly go wrong? We headed over to what has historically been our most fruitful Hog paths.This is when reality hit. There were loads of toads hopping about. Dozens and dozens. But no Hogs or Garters or any snakes. I did find this large Dark Fishing Spider under some bark.

Fowler's Toads were the herp du jour. Small ones, fat ones... they were very conspicuous.

Puffed up or just super-fat?

We were pretty toasted by this point. We wanted to hit the visitor's center before leaving because every Painted Turtle we'd seen thus far had slipped into the drink unphotographed and it's a good spot for them. Sure enough, a distant Painter was getting some sun.

Then, right in front of us, a large Redbelly hoisted itself up, giving us an extra special treat.

We limped over to a bench to sit and watch the water ripple for a while. Her ankle was bothering her and evidently, I have Plantar fasciitis and it has been killing me of late. We have come to the conclusion that we can't push ourselves quite as hard as we're used to. Getting old, I guess. But even as we sat, cooling off and resting our aches and pains, we saw some more distant Painters sunning themselves.

And that makes it all worthwhile. We missed the target but had nine well-earned species. A good day, I say.

S is for September, Salamanders and Shoestrings Part One. 9-1-2023

We hadn't yet been to a certain spot in Middlesex County where we sometimes have seen hatchling turtles and shoestring snakes at this time of year and, since it was going to be pretty nice out, we decided to make it our Saturday walk. We sprayed down really well because this is the gnatiest place on Earth. Luckily, we got there pretty early and the gnats weren't out in force yet.

Remember last week, when we saw a couple of Redbacks but couldn't procure a picture? I realized that we hadn't actually photographed a Redback since the week before Andrea broke her ankle back in April. April 16th was my last Plethodon cinerus photo. It was with great pleasure that I finally got this guy.

It's ridiculous how difficult it has been to see such a common animal. I blame crazy worms, and heat.

Bull? Green? Are those dorsolateral ridges or a series of bumps. I don't get stumped often but this guy has my head spinning. We're going Green based on the pointier face, but is it the angle?

A few Painted Turtles were seen before we hit the big turtle spots.

This place can flood, even on normal years. We knew we'd be faced with a challenge at a certain spot. Sure enough, the path was super-flooded. Hell, we've done worse. So as other hikers were turning back, we headed in.

The excessive rain was the cause, yes... but the beavers had a lot to say about it, too.

This in-the-blue-Garter sat atop one of the piles, grabbing some morning rays.

I photographed this Painter from the edge of the pond. I hadn't noticed the massive Bullfrog right in front of him until I uploaded the picture! A pleasant twofer surprise.

A definite Green, found by Andrea.

A Painted Turtle playing king of the hill.

This big Garter gal was lounging in the brush.

Let's have a little talk about Painted Turtles. We saw a ton. They are all so beautiful. If they were rare, photographers would be falling all over themselves to try to see one. I rarely pass any Painters up. Plus, this place has Blanding's and sometimes, in a pile of Painters, you get a surprise. We didn't this time, however. But let's all wallow in the splendor that is Chrysemys picta picta, the Eastern Painted Turtle.

I'm going to interrupt the Painted glory for a moment to show off a Green Frog, then a Bullfrog.

OK, back to the beauty of Painters. As you see, I rarely pass one by without trying to get a shot.

We'd walked about as far as we could with sore ankles and heels these days, we've got to cut things off sometimes. Earlier, Andrea had seen one wee shoestring Garter but it quickly got to an untouchable spot. Luckily, on the way back, we saw another. He went under a log. I felt around under it... there was space. So, I looked on the other side of the log and there he was, as cute as a newborn Garter. Which is exactly what he was.

Nice! First shoestring photo of the year!

Even better, that very same log had this Peeper on it that Andrea spotted.

Not a bad day in the field. We got two things that we'd been hoping for... a salamander and a shoestring. Only six species but a good, honest day in the woods. And all of that Painted magnificence.