THIS is why we love Ponkapoag!! Sept. 19th 2010

Hot on the heels of a Spotty-centric Saturday, we headed for the hills... the Blue Hills. Ponkapoag, to be specific.

Our first herp sighting was just before the dam... a massive Bullfrog. With no size reference, it's tough to describe but this guy is a BRUISER!


A bit further on, Andrea spotted this smaller Bullfrog, decked out in his funkiest jammies.


A bit further down the dam, Andrea yelled out "Water"! A ran over (I was working the opposite side of the dam) and got there just as a black tail was slipping between some rocks. I grabbed it and held on, trying to coax the snake back. I could see a little noggin peeking out a few stones up and tried to clear some space but he backed up. We wrestled for about 3 minutes and I was decidedly losing the tug of war. I didn't want to damage a scale or anything so I freed him, with only this picture to show for it...


I had a little better luck further down the dam with this Garter Snake!


He was full of piss and vinegar (but not musk, as he'd sprayed me pretty well) and seemed to enjoy the taste of my finger!


I asked Andrea if she wanted to hold him and she said "nah- I'd rather get bitten by my own catch". Prophetic words indeed.

This youthful Painted Turtle was blending in nicely with his surroundings, but one little movement caught Andrea's eye and she got this shot!


This Green Frog was also enjoying the dam.


We decided to go the whole way around as Andrea's tendons were feeling OK and the day was lovely! So... we found our old reliable friends the Redback...


And the red squirrel...

(Check out this guy's racing stripe...)

A little further on, Andrea yelled out "Milk"! Man, she was having the luck today!
She pulled up this little beauty!



Remember how she'd rather get bitten by her own snake? Blurry pix, but hilarious!



Feisty yes, and such a beauty!


A little bit of flipping also turned up a lovely Ringneck snake!



We've been told that water snakes have been seen along the dock area so we gave it a closer inspection... nope, this wasn't a Water Snake...

(More like a Pickerel Frog!)

But these skins were under the dock so I believe the stories...


Then things got weird...

The pond was very low due to the dry weather that we'd been having. Therefore, there was plenty of "beach" to walk along. I was poking around looking for water snakes and Andrea squeaked... "Redback... walking"! Now, we see dozens of Redbacks on most of our nature walks, but they're always nestled under rocks and logs. This guy was walking tall along the beach!! Towards the water!



And he didn't stop when he got to the water! He took a dunk and swam a bit (undulating side to side, as one might expect) and came back to the shore!


Then, he disappeared into some wet leaves on the shore. Weird.

Walking back towards the car, I saw a garter near the trail. I pointed him out to Andrea, who didn't see him. I nudged him with my snake stick to show her and he didn't move. (I expected him to take off.) So I bent down and picked him up. He was feisty to a degree...


But I realized that only his front half was feisty and his back half lay limply in my hands...


He was digesting a meal so he wasn't so impaired that he couldn't hunt but his back 2/3rds were definitely just hanging there. I put him down to watch him crawl and sure enough, his back 2/3rds dragged behind...


Injured or not (there were no open wounds visible) he was an alert and good looking specimen (on the front at least!) and when we left him, he was eyeing a Pickerel Frog that had jumped within a few inches of his head.


Quite a day! I was nice to see a few different species of snakes for a change! On the final stretch of the walk, we heard a cooing in the bushes and saw this young 'un sitting there... Not sure what it is, but it's cute! (The esteemed Jef C. Taylor says what we gots here is a cat bird! Thanks Jef!)


Ponkapoag, sometimes I wonder why we bother walking on other trails... This one is just perfect!

Hoar gives us pleasure for FREE! Sept. 18th 2010

When you stop to think about it, going on nature walks is a great way to save money! Most places are free! We get to look for herps, exercise and enjoy each others company while saving money! That's as good as it gets!

There's this place called Hoar Sanctuary nearby. They have a small pamphlet with a Spotted Salamander pictured above the information. That's good enough for us! (Plus, we like the name...)

So we found the place with a bit of trouble, but started our walk. There is a tennis court nearby and we could hear the folks playing as we descended into the woods. The habitat looked great, but it took a while before we found anything. (Except for this funnel web)


Animal wise, this long, tall sally was first. While not a spotty, it's a fine example of a Redback!




True to the pamphlet, this Spotted Salamander was found next!


What could be cuter than a spotty? How about this mini-redback?!


He even makes the modest diamond that I gave Andrea look impressive!

Was there anything there except for Sallies? Yeah! Howza 'bout Green Frogs?



But the sallies started to come hot and heavy, like this darker (shedding?), high walkin' Spotty!


Under-log space was at a premium...


Spotties kept getting biggah and biggah!



(That one guy was particularly photogenic...)



And... oh my... bigger still!


This last guy was the brute of the day!



So yeah... the pamphlet wasn't kidding. Hoar Sanctuary is sick with Spotties! It's a short trail... even with all of the flipping we did, we only spent about 2 hours there.

We'll definitely be paying a visit to this cheap Hoar again in the near future!

9/5/2010 now with 33% less ass!

Anyhoo- we got a really early start and got to our Bristol County at about 8:30 AM. The grass was still covered with dew and it was cool. That didn't help us find any snakes though! Pickerel frogs, however, were out and about!



Redbacks were around as well...


This poor guy was the first to go on my ass (area... admittedly rather high...)

Hey proceeded to crawl up and under my shirt, tickling the hell out of me!


We did eventually get lucky and find a lil' shoestring garter snake!



As they often are in Taunton, toads were well represented!



A pond that is usually there was all but dried up... so we walked through the muck and found lots of frogs, both pickerel and green...




And tons of snail eggs...


And even a leadback phase of the Redback!


In one beach area, there are always holes dug with turtle shells scattered around, leading me to believe that skunks or raccoons dig them up and eat them before the young chelonians have a chance to hatch. I was happy to reach into a moist hole (easy, now) and dig out empty shells... these guys hatched and were already gone- out in the world doing important turtle things!


It was also an avian-heavy day. There was a group of 4 big birds right overhead- 1 large and 3 medium ones circling above.


Geese and swans had taken over all of the good turtle basking spots!


That didn't seem to bother the two guys in the background here...


I barely got a shot of this beautiful Pearl Crescent Butterfly.


One spot there had become a girly magazine bonfire area. A few months ago, there just appeared in the middle of a trail, a huge pile of half burned magazines. Someone had disposed of their collection (or had it disposed of by a furious partner). At any rate, having sat there for a while in the rain and sun... the charred magazines had become pretty decent habitat! These ashy pickerels and redbacks are a testament to that!



So, all in all it was a pretty good day, though arriving so early didn't really give us any breaks.

9/4/2010 Allendale woods on short notice

We hadn't planned on a hike. But we had to go to Home Depot. We pass by Allendale. It was only natural to stop by, even if only for a quickie! *hmmmmm*

Well, we had a pleasant enough walk, but it was late afternoon so we didn't have much time and the possibility of snakes was minimal. We made it to the pond and saw a heron hunting, probably having better luck finding herps than we were!


It took off and amazingly, Andrea got this shot... barely! (The camera was off and NOT at the ready!)


Once Señor Heron was gone, some frogs started coming back into sight. Well...at least this one Bullfrog did!


We also found a redback on the short (only an hour and a half) walk.

The wee fellow dropped his tail on me!

After shopping (and buying a dryer) we went over to the Dedham Animal Rescue League to play with cats. That's always fun. Every time I'm there, I like to walk the grounds to see the outdoor animals... horses, bunnies, pigs... and to flip stuff. It just LOOKS snakey!

Well... it was! I flipped some wood over near a bush and this young garter snake was coiled up underneath, resting on some gravel!



Quite a beauty he was and it was a great note to end on as we headed home for some dinner!