The Last Days of May 5-30-2025

One last hurrah in the month of May... Andrea got off work (at home) at 2:30 so I woke up and asked if she wanted to go out and look for critters. We originally chose a spot just inside Norfolk County to look for Milks. On the way there, I asked if she wanted to stop by the closed school to see if any Water Snakes were up and about. We decided to do that and got into slow moving traffic. Oops.

Well, we eventually got there and went to the boardwalk.

But there was no boardwalk. The place was thoroughly flooded. No Water Snakes for us. Wait... what's that on the second log on the left?

Big enough Mama to see from 40 feet away!

We poked around the edges. I stood on a grate and looked out over the pond next to the playing fields. The spillway is full of volleyballs and tennis balls and pollen. Pretty gross. These Painted Turtles didn't seem to care, though.

I told Andrea that I had to stand on the grate to see these guys (and she'd never do that) and she said, "no, I can see them." The other side of the pond had a sweet stack of Painters that I hadn't even seen.

So, to continue on to the Norfolk County spot or just try to get over to the park that is attached to the playing field. We decided on the latter just to avoid more annoying traffic.

It was fairly quiet there. It is usually filled with dog walkers, bikes and other things but it was pretty calm. We saw a large Water Snake hanging out next to a bridge going over the brook.

Further on, another big Mama, this time with a visible meal in her.

We got to our turn around spot and saw a Painter trying out a suitable nesting spot.

On the way back, Andrea finally found us a frog... a pretty Green sitting in a puddle.

There are tons of rocks here but since I'm getting older and weaker, I only go for the easy, low-hanging fruit. I really was hoping for a Garter. This, another big Mamajamma Water Snake, was nestled into an interesting coil. She didn't last long. She bolted off, saving Andrea the bites and musk that would have come with moving her to replace the rock.

Always on the lookout for such things, we saw a Snapper head in the brook.

Walking back by the bridge, we noticed the big Water Snake lounging on the hill going down towards the water. Was she consciously waiting for something?

Because about 6 feet from her, this good sized Snapper was walking up a small waterfall.

Now, I'm not sure a 3 foot snake has a ton to worry about, save a possible nip but you never know and nature holds a lot of surprises. I like to think she was waiting for the coast to clear. The Snapper disappeared quickly.

Heading back, a smaller Water Snake was cruising through the brush.

A few more Painters for good measure.

Finally, almost to the parking lot, a Garter appeared. It was too fast for me but Andrea got our voucher shot and all was well with the world. No way I could lift the rock it went under.

Unplanned trips that pay off with exciting sights are the best. This was a decent Friday surprise.

Milky Memorial Day. 5-26-2025

There was sun!! There was warmth! What better place to celebrate than a walk around our favorite pond in Norfolk County! We got a slightly later start than hoped for (waking up was difficult) but we got there around 10:30 AM and found parking pretty easily so we hit the trail. We saw nothing until we got to the dam. But then we saw plenty. Like Spotted Turtles. Lots of them.

We finally got to see our LIVE Water Snake after yesterday's heartbreak.

We were extremely surprised to see a Milk lounging in the sun in a totally new spot for them. Big one, too. Easily a yard long.

Another Water Snake, right next to a family that had no idea that it was there. It became a teaching snake.

I couldn't get a shot of all of the Spotteds, but here is one more. Hunting, it was.

Hey, what about that! A Painted Turtle! The only one on the day!

We went for a bit without seeing many critters for a while but I was eager to get to the Hobo Camp anyway, in hopes of our First of Year Ringneck. It took some doing and a handful of musk but we found one! A perfect one at that!

A Six-spotted Tiger Beetle. They're pretty gorgeous.

Andrea found our one and only Redback on the day. Believe me, I worked my ass off on Ringneck Hill for more of them and more Ringers but struck out.

I was looking by the stream for Two-lines and upset a pair of Pickerel Frogs who jetted off into the unknown. I was basically on my last rock and asked Andrea if she'd flipped it, being a known Garter rock. She hadn't. I informed her that it was now also a known Milk rock.

Since when do we have that kind of luck. This Milk also became a teaching snake.

We joked about putting a moratorium on Milks. Funny enough, we only needed a Garter for a 4-snake species day. Surely we'd see one at the swimming area. Nope... another Milk.

We were talking with the person in charge of camps for a while and her young son was snake-happy. We decided to be quiet and let that hidden Milk sleep but I did see a Garter on the crawl and grabbed it for the kid to gently hold for a minute. He was pretty good with it.

Check out that scar! Snakes are tenacious lil things!

I got my revenge on Pickerels... I flipped one next to a campsite.

On the way back to the car, I couldn't resist looking for a Two-lined in another stream area. It was easy this time.

9th species on the day!

We, of course, were hoping for a 10 species day, something we rarely get in Massachusetts. Well, we didn't get another but we're not going to scoff at a four snake species day. And what's with 5 Milks in 2 days? We feel pretty satisfied with how the week finally played out after being stuck in the house for a few days.

Another Tricky Day. May 25th 2025

We decided to play the same hand as the day before. It was going to be 60° and cloudy. We decided on a place that has good nesting turtle possibilities as well as plenty of flipping for cool snakes. It is also a fairly good Milk spot and we really wanted to see some. So, breakfast on the road... we were off to Bristol County.

We got there 10ish and it was still under 60° but comfortable. Humanity has come back for the season and camping was open. We don't see a ton of people on our hikes here but their detritus can't be missed. More on that later. We were happy to see our first critter pretty quickly, a small Bullfrog.

We got to our best flip spot and I started looking under broken up concrete and burned logs. While doing that, Andrea found an in-the-blue Garter on the crawl, which was most unexpected. Not much dorsal stripe there, Buster!

I flipped a picnic table top (that I'm pretty sure I set up there last year) and got my own sweet, clean and very striped Garter.

We don't get many Holy Shit! moments these days as we're pretty much stuck in Massachusetts but I'm pretty sure I yelled that when I made this board flip.

A double First of Year Milk flip!

Main target achieved.

Further on, I stood for quite a while as an Eastern Towhee was scrubbing around on the ground behind trees and bushes, defying my camerawork. I finally got an ID-able shot for our 50th bird species on the year.

Despite the overcast day, the sun was trying to pop out and the Painted Turtles were giving it their basking all.

I've heard them called "Sun Turtles" but never "Mud Turtles"... that'd be a shell of a different color! But these Painters were certainly muddy.

Andrea flipped our first Redback on the day.

I flipped our first Fowler's on the day.

We were at the middle pond where there is a lot of fishing and swimming usually. We had it to ourselves at the moment. A few dead Sunfish were in the shallows. I figure Snappers and Water Snakes might take care of them. I walked the rocks looking for secret Water Snakes. A Garter whizzed past me, then Andrea said there was a Water Snake over the spillway. A big female. I went up to it and its head was crushed. Murdered? Accidentally run over by a bike and moved? Either way, a human came into her home and killed her. I put her down towards the water, respectfully out of sight. It really put me in a mood.

I kept checking the rocks along the side of the pond. A woman came by and asked what we were looking for and I acidly said "a live Water Snake, unlike the murdered one we'd just seen" and she said that she'd just seen some probable mating Water Snakes on the other side of the pond. That helped. I had so much Nerodia on the brain that I thought this blue stripeless Garter was one at first!

This Fowler's hopped into some pretty yellow wildflowers for a nice photo.

This is the only Red-bellied Cooter that we saw all day so I include this rather shitty photo here.

Some happy Painted Turtles that, oddly enough, I didn't see with the naked eye, even though they were right there!

We never did see that tangle of Water Snakes. Oh well, back into the woods, I flipped a nice Redback. Yes, of course this is a set-up shot.

Another Fowler's jumped into perfect position.

Rock-flippin'. This wee Garter looked pink in person. Beauty!

This is an interesting Fowler's... we thought at first it was just dusty but no, it is just very pale. Almost leucistic. Decent sized, too.

Yes, we did peek at the boards on the way out and yes, both Milks and the Garter were still there. We didn't bother them any more. One last Bullfrog in the bog on the way out.

Well, we'd hoped for a live Water Snake but we still can't complain on that hike, except for the obvious things. We still had a little gas so we drove into Plymouth County to see if there were any nesting turtles at the old mill. There weren't and the water was rushing like mad so we saw no reptiles at all. We did see a couple of Canada Goose families with cute lil fuzzy goslings.

And we ended the day with Bird #52, a chubby Chipping Sparrow amongst the buttercups.

Bittersweet, but a pretty good day with a 7 Reptile and Amphibian species count and 3 birds added to the year. Overall, I'm pretty pleased.