Anniversary Vacation Days 2 and 3. Aug. 22nd and 23rd 2025

We both woke up tired but we were able to shamble out to the porch to watch birds and have breakfast. I took dozens of hummingbird shots, some were even decent. But we were interested in spending our Big Day out in the woods, for better or worse. It was going to be much warmer this day and had hopes for a good one.

We couldn't find our first spot. Eventually, we saw a gate and a sign for the place so I squished into a bush and we headed in. It was a massive field with gravel around the edges. As soon as we hit the edge grass, we saw plenty of small Pickerel Frogs bounding into the brush. I was trying to photograph one when Andrea found a shoestring Garter!

Here's one of those pesky Pickerels!

I was really lucky to see a tiny Peeper hopping in the grass. He landed on a dandelion leaf, all 3/4" of him, and stayed long enough for me to get a charming shot.

The rest of the field wasn't very productive, a few Pickerels but they were too fast. I got mixed up direction-wise, too. We hit a short wooded path in hopes of seeing the nearby river but it cut off, so we turned back and moved on.

There was a dam nearby so I figured, "why not?" It was very open but I figured Water Snakes might be out and the spillway might have a Snapper. But there wasn't any cold-blooded critters to be seen. I did add Bird #64, a Rough-winged Swallow, who looked at me as I snapped the shot.

Upward and onward... we wanted shady woodland paths and streams. We headed back to another spot in Peru. It looked like it had a slew of well marked paths and even a hand-drawn map free to take. We headed in and it was our cup of tea, for sure. We were greeted by a busy Hickory Tussock Moth Caterpillar. No touch 'em.

This Pickerel jumped into our way and it got me for a second... a couple of extra dots and more green than usual. He tried to make me think Leopard but no, he's all Pickerel. A beauty, too.

We found some streams leading from a very picturesque pond. There were Dookies present! 

I made a mad (back-wrenching) search for Springs, as well, because the water seemed to be good enough for them but no...

I was wondering why we were seeing plenty of Dookies but no Two-Lines. Of course, right then I saw one or two but they were far to quick for me! Happily, back up on the trail, I flipped a log and had not only a Redback, but our first Two-line of the weekend.

Up next to the pond, we flipped a tiny Two-line. Check out his markings! Gorgeous!

This Redback was huge but I was too dumb to put in anything for a size reference.

Double Dookie Display.

The hand-drawn map was helpful but the distances were a bit wonky. We made decisions that turned out to be longer than expected and many rests were needed. We were on the red-blaze path and there was a fallen tree. Looks like a bear took exception to the red paint on the bark!

This had been a great place but we'd really gotten a bit gassed on the many winding trails so we headed to Pittsfield for an Anniversary Buffet. Yum. But, of course, we'd have to walk off the meal. We'd not seen any turtles yet that day so we went to a place near where we were that we knew was turtle-centric. Upon getting to the pond, we got to watch Painted Turtles playing, basking and exploring.

We explored a bit more but inevitably went back to watch the Painters. But we were toast so we headed back to "our" place. We'd hoped to have enough gas to take the kayaks out but wound up sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs watching birds bugs and bunnies.

I finally got my #66 Ruby-throated Hummingbird shot. Not as sharp as I'd like but not horrible. The tongue is out.

That night, it was much easier to sleep. 

The next morning, we had breakfast on the porch again, enjoying the birds and bugs. Then we went down to the dock and sat there watching the water for an hour. It's not too bad to wake up and have this for your view.

Bluegills kept coming up to see if we had any treats. We did not.

We had tiny Orb-weaver Spiders in the potted plants in front of us and they were entertaining us a lot.

We checked out and hit the road, not really sure what we were going to do. My only need-it was the Spring Salamander place that we hadn't been back to since I broke my arm there on July 13th, 2019. 

Our first stop was a town fair that the Berkshire County Turtle Rescue was going to be at and we wanted to show them some support. They had some real cuties on display.

We next went to a place we'd stumbled on last year with a beautiful waterfall. It was even more beautiful this year because there were almost NO humans there.

A Redback greeted us after we made our way through to a private area.

The scenery was beautiful.

Two-lines? Present!

We cooled off a bit and then headed to our Spring spot for some much belated Spring searching. The road signs looked different and as we approached the area we noticed cars. Hmmm... they'd opened the gate and some people had parked there. As we pulled in, we saw that a lot of people were there. Dozens and dozens. Human garbage. There was even a dude laying down where I always found erythristic Redbacks. The place was absolutely RUINED. I pulled out and drove upstream for a mile or so until I found a quiet place to park. The river was a bit of a hike from the road but it was quiet and shaded and it might have been my only chance for a Spring. I had a Pickerel greet me on the way down to the water.

I made it down and it looked as good as it would get.

I flipped and searched until I just couldn't do it anymore. I was at least rewarded with a 4 inch Dook that was quite lovable.

That was it for the weekend. I can't put into words how heartbroken and disappointed I am that this pristine, gorgeous place was opened back up for humans to destroy. I doubt Springs will bother with that river anymore. Surely human trash, suntan oil and sludge will wipe out the population. It devastated me. And the traffic stupidity tested me on the way home. (I failed) 

I'm not going to let the bad stuff wipe out the great time we had that weekend. We saw 12 species of reptile and amphibian, added 3 birds to the year and best of all, spent time together. 22 years! I hit the lottery for sure.