April: Finishing Touches. April 24th and 25th 2026

A warm Friday means Andrea's lunchbreak is taken on a trail. Well, the local den sites have all been abandoned for the year, but we took one last look (until the Fall) and came up empty, save for one well camouflaged Redback. We officially call this place off-limits until late September.

The next day was supposed to be a cool but sunny Saturday, somewhat like when we took a hike around our favorite Norfolk County pond the weekend before. We did OK that day, what could possibly go wrong if we tried to do the same at our favorite pond in Plymouth County? Well, for one thing, it was off and on cold and the sun never really made much of an effort. Still, we did see a few critters. As often happens, we started off with a wee Redback.

Water levels were super high in the bogs. We saw some Spotted Turtles but due to a recent cutback at the foliage around the entire place, they saw us coming. Got my camera on one slowpoke.

From there, we saw a few Painted Turtles. Not a ton, but beggars can't be choosers this year. These tenacious chelonians were a very welcome sight.

A beautiful Great Egret (#41) posed nicely for us.

I didn't need a Mallard for this year's Bird Count, but I got such a nice, ridiculously clear photo that I figured I might as well share it.

We saw a couple of Snappers along the way, both in the water and both smarter than the camera person.

Now, on the bad side, we talked to some fellow hikers and a guy mentioned a big "die off" where many fish were caught in the cold and washed up dead. We did see a few leftovers from that. The trimming back also gave us a small chunk of desiccated Water Snake. The guy said he'd seen a lot of chunks. We also came across a good sized Redbelly Turtle that had succumbed to the weather just off the path. Heartbreaking stuff, all of it.

We put in just under seven miles that day and while we didn't see a lot, we're happy with the living animals we encountered. We ended up with a few more Painted Turtles.

One of these days, the weather will adjust and we'll have a real year. But it's showing no signs of making that adjustment yet, so we grab at what we can. And we're thankful for everything we get to see.