Early May... 5-11-2024

May has been tricky again this year, with nice warm, sunny days during the work week, then dreary cool days on the weekends. Saturday May 11th was supposed to be Somerville Porchfest but due to a snafu, the band didn't get signed up. So we Andrea and I were free to hike. But it was 55° and cloudy. We wanted to hike anyway, so we took a stroll around our favorite Norfolk County pond.

We went in a different spot than usual, therefore we saw things in different order than usual. We got there at 10 AM and kept our jackets on. A hiker was coming towards us and she told us of an owl that was sitting in a tree not too far up the path. She was right. Thank you, unknown girl with dog! This is the first Barred Owl I have photographed in years! Bird #33 for 2024.

He actually flew up closer to us.

So, the birding got off to a good start but we doubted that many reptiles would be present. Our first cold-blooded finds were a couple of small Redbacks. Both of these guys are stub-tails. 

This is good because this place is really bad with Crazy Worms and last year, Redbacks looked like they were on the decline because of it. While this side of the pond is less Crazy, it's still a good sign.

We didn't see anything for the next mile or two but when we got to the dam, we had a very unexpected surprise. A trio of horny Water Snakes were up, mostly guarded from the wind, and havin' at it in the cool weather.

Our first May snakes.

Here's #34, a Red-winged Blackbird. Not rare or anything but I really like the shot I got.

Another nice surprise was the amount of turtles that were attempting to sun themselves on this cool, cloudy, windy day. The edge of the pond was full of Spotted and Painted Turtles, most of which dove into the drink when we stopped to try to photograph them. Here is a quartet of Spotteds that I was able to get shots of. The first guy was actually crossing the path!

That last guy was pretty high up in the reeds. I wish I'd see him climb up there!

The last sight on the way back to the car was this pretty, chocolatey Redback.

So, not a record-breaking day but not so bad after all. We hiked 6 1/2 miles all told and saw plenty of things that we wouldn't have seen from the couch. I call it a success.