Ending May. 5-31-2024

Andrea had this Friday off and since I always have Fridays off, we made a pilgrimage to Bristol County to try to see a few First-of-Years; Milk Snakes and Musk Turtles, specifically. We got up, hit Fifties Diner for sustenance and made it to our destination by 9 AM.

It seemed at first that we got there a bit too early. Some hot spots weren't hot yet and it took some time before we saw our first amphibian, a small Redback.

We finally saw our first reptile of the day, a basking Water Snake. They are not super-common here, so this was a bonus for us!

A small Garter was also catching some rays. Only our second Garter of May!

That seemed to break the seal because when we got to a place we call "Garter Hill", there were a few snakes out warming up. 

We got to the waterfall and sat down for a rest. I photographed this Striped Fishing Spider from about 25 feet away. He was a monster!

Heading back, we passed garter Hill again and there were plenty of Garters up warming now. This guy looked happy.

Adorning the bush on Garter Hill was this Aurora Damsel.

Heading back, this pretty Garter cut me off and struck a Cobra pose.

We headed back down to the river, surprised that we hadn't seen any turtles yet. Still, none were up but we saw this Belted Kingfisher (#43 on the year) nab some lunch.

Finally, we saw a couple of Painted Turtles up basking on a dock that had floated away.

Heading back to the car, we again hit the garden. It had still been cool on the way in but now it was getting full sun so another look around was warranted. It paid off when we flipped a yearling Milk, our FOY!

Hiding in the corner of a garden space was another Milk, a kind of golden-boy.

Not visible from my photo above, Andrea's phone shot caught a Garter tail behind the Milk.

Having had half-success, we headed over into Plymouth County to our Musk place, initially shown to us by our friend Sārah. We had just arrived when, much to our delight, Sārah herself came cycling by! We all had a lovely talk and caught up after what seems like it had been forever! We all decided to look for a Musk together. The reservoir was full of River Herring.

My usual Musk-finding technique wasn't working too well, but a woman fishing nearby pointed out a turtle on a rock near her. Thank you, miss!! That is our FOY Musk Turtle!

Unfortunately, Sārah had to leave, but she told us about a place nearby that she's had luck seeing animals; a backroad that had some dilapidated mill buildings on it. Sounded amazing! She even photographed it and sent the shots to Andrea's phone as she biked past it! We headed on over.

It is a quiet dirt road with bogs and marsh on either side and the Green Frogs and Bulls were calling. I couldn't quite get my eyes on any, though. I did get a nice shot of a Baltimore Oriole (#44), though.

The old mill area was fenced off and I was still uncertain, despite Sārah's assurance, that it was OK to go in. A couple of teenage girls drove up to the gate. I asked them if it was seriously OK and they said yeah. They both went in, then went back out fairly quickly. I guess their meetup didn't show or something.

The area is a "herper"s paradise. Tons of old boards, pallets and debris; all perfect snake-hiding places. The first few boards got us a few more Garters.

We even got our first anuran on the day there, a pudgy Fowler's Toad.

The place really offers some amazing opportunities. We'll go back some morning as things are warming up. It looks very Racery. 

My favorite sight was amongst a large wall of these boxes...

I'd flipped a piece of wood in front of them and a shoestring garter scurried away. As we watched it, I glanced up into a broken box. This Garter was brilliant. He was protected from all prying eyes (unless you happened to be standing right there, like us), yet was still catching some sun. A safe and satisfying basking spot!

What a wonderful day! We saw some targets, saw a good friend and, thanks to her, have a new spot with a lot of potential. Thank you, Sārah.