May Happenings and Non-Happenings.

We are stuck, once again, in the shitty weekend/ nice workday nonsense that seems to be the norm these days. We get out when we can but still have other commitments and duties. Mother's Day has traditionally been a good day for us to take a quick hike in Norfolk County before visiting Andrea's mum so we attempted that again. It was May 11th. It wasn't as fruitful as we'd hoped because there was a stiff wind keeping things cool. We did manage to start the hike with a Scarlet Tanager (#48) which is always pretty cool, though.

Our hike turned up nothing but we did get in some exercise and when we reached the river, I was able to photograph some basking Painted Turtles on the other side.

At Andrea's mum's house, there was a bunny in the yard. So, yeah... nature!

On the way home, we pulled over at a bus-stop on a busy street and flipped a resident Garter.

I got really sick after that and was out of commission for a few days. Even missed my one day of work, so... the whole week! Still, by May 17th, I figured I could walk the short path at the abandoned school in Suffolk County in hopes of seeing a Water Snake. We were greeted right away with a cyclops Nerodia who, ahem... never saw us coming.

We were really happy to see a quartet of lovely Water Snakes resting after what must have been an exhausting orgy. That red guy on top was gorgeous. Almost a Milk!

Another large female resting above the water.

Leaving, I startled this small guy into the drink and I followed him as he swam for about 50 feet around to the island, trying for a decent shot. Obviously, I never accomplished that feat.

When we got home, I got Bird #49, a Northern Mockingbird sitting on our fence.

By Sunday the 18th, I was more or less feeling OK again (though yes, I have been sick again SINCE Sunday. Shoot me.) so we made plans to get out to Plymouth County to try for a Hognose or Redbell or Green. What could possibly go wrong?

We got there a little after 10 AM and went to the outside-of-park gas line that we had given up on last year. It seems that work has been done on it this year so we will officially stop hitting it now. But since we were here... we went in a broke the seal on Fowler's Toads. Our First few of the Year. Such a pleasure to see them again!

We went down the hill and a few ATV man-children were riding about. Andrea spied a pretty Peeper down in the cool shade.

Water levels all over the park looked really low as we drove in and our destination vernal was dry. It is the lowest we have seen it since I wrote "When the Pool Runs Red" about it a number of years ago. Heart-breaking. The tire has had many Painters basking on it.

Over to the bogs. They are kept filled with water with sprinklers and stuff. There had been a lot of plant cleanup: piles were scattered all over. But there were still frogs present, the first seen was a Bull.

Another Fowler's.

And another Bullfrog. Note the excessive pollen! It was all over the place!

A pretty Green Frog.

We sat and rested for a while watching the pond next to the bog. A lone Painted Turtle was enjoying the sun, which was really quite lovely.

Another Bull on the way back to the car.

Proving that May 18th is not too early to nest, this Painted lady was butt-deep in the dirt laying some eggs.

From there we went to the Station to get water. I have become a sponge. There was one distant Red-bellied Cooter up catching some rays.

That was it for us on the day. We did go to walk another path in hopes of the usually elusive Hog but struck out, like we so often do. That's OK. We saw stuff, got some exercise and I had 3 ticks embedded in me that evening. So it's all good, right?

No wonder I'm always sick.