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.
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