We lost our minds in Brockton, Brown City 7-2-2013

Tuesday was our day off. After the waste of time, money and energy that was our soaked Connecticunt trip, we needed a day off. So by noon, we figured we'd waited long enough and we decided to go take a look at DW Field Park in Brockton... a place that had been recommended to us by a creepy old man and one that we had been unable to get into before (the gates open late on weekends!?!?).

As soon as we get to Brockton, we notice that everything has a certain pallor to it; everything is kind of brown. Not the beautiful rich chocolaty browns or creamy tans... dusty grey-brown. Dreary. Even the greens are drab olive. Kinda brown.

So, DW Field has 3 ponds and we expected to look at all of 'em. We parked and started to do our thing. Which was tough. Because once again, the dew point was at 99.99% and it was warm... there just wasn't much out and about. Plus, the place was filthy! Bottles and wrappers everywhere, floating or laying about on the grass. Pretty disgusting.

Andrea was exploring a dusty brown hill and found this open nest.

Was a predator stopped? Did the mama Painted forget to bury? (Ellie does that sometimes) Either way, Andrea gently covered them back up in hopes of new brown turtles in the future.

This is all I found. Still sticky paint and a ripped up dollar bill. This passes for art in Brockton.


Along the edge of the pond, we saw no life, but Painted Turtle heads would pop up 20 feet out, only to disappear as soon as I got the camera trained on them. Here are a few that were too slow for my lightning reflexes.



That last guy is a real old-timer. He was huge and even from this shot, you can see shell wear. And just look at that wizened face...

The second pond we saw had nothing, so we changed our course and went back past where we went in, heading for the third pond. Andrea spotted this Pickerel Frog on the way.


At the very edge of the second pond, Andrea saw a small Garter Snake take off, inevitably going over the wall... a 6-foot drop. Weeeeee! I never saw him, but Andrea describes him as... dull brown.

The third pond was the best of the three. I saw a big hump in the (brownish) water. By the time I realized it was a Snapping Turtle carapace and fumbled with the camera, it had submerged. But he poked his noggin out for this shot, of which I'm proud.


At one point, I saw a dull brown Garter Snake uncoil from a bask and sweep into some dull brown foliage. I couldn't find him.

We ended the trip with three big Bullfrogs.




So, yeah... we tried a new place. Nothing to write home about. (But evidently something to blog about.) Depressing and dull, chalky brown. We spent two sweaty hours in Brockton, Brown City. That, my dear, is quite long enough.

A Wash-Out in Connecticut 7-1-2013

We were trying to hitch up with our pal Ryan for a quick get together in Connecticut. He'd found his first Hognose over the weekend and we thought that Day 3 of Herp-Vacation was a good time to head South. Well, we never got a hold of him, but decided to try it out none the less.

Weather? Rainy, of course! It's supposed to be all week. But whatever- we had our raincoats and camera-condoms so let's go!

I couldn't drive too quickly because the ol' Corolla just can't handle it anymore, but within 2 hours, we were there, at Northwest Park in East Windsor. As we approached, we noticed that there were kids, buckets and nets. It seems that they had begun herping without us.

It was kinda cool, because they had netted a bunch of metamorph Bullfrogs... ready to emerge, but still with tails!


So we looked at the frogs (some of which were being petted) and felt better when one girl said "We have 4 minutes and a lot of goodbyes"... meaning they were about to release them. One of the froglets had been named Steve.

So we started out, first off finding a couple of American Toads... one small, one not as small.



We started up a trail and looked into a pond... an adult Bullfrog!


Getting near that pond was like that old commercial when a guy sticks an arm not-sprayed with OFF! into a cage of mosquitos... we were swarmed, despite spraying our faces down. Miserable, and the dewpoint must have been at 99.9%! I put on my raincoat not just for the sprinkles, but to protect more skin. I was instantly drenched in perspiration.

We poked around a field, looking at sandy raised areas, hoping for a Box Turtle or Hognose or something. I pleaded with whatever greater force there is out there for a sighting of something, knowing Andrea needs some lifers. We got nothing.

Then the skies opened up. Hugely. We kept up appearances.


We explored some (dry) abandoned barns and still saw nothing. I think that the only thing I saw was a cricket. Outside, it continued pouring!

(I couldn't even wear my glasses... they just fogged up.)

Eventually, we decided on a forest trail, in hopes of the tree canopy shielding us a bit from the torrenbtial downpour. It was just as bad and the hills were running with mud. Every time the rainfall increased, we said "and there I thought it couldn't  rain harder". Eventually, we got near the Nature Center, walking against the tide of a sidewalk river... after 4 hours of being out in a torrential downpour... finding NOTHING!! (I heard a Grey Tree Frog... but couldn't find him).

We dried off in the Nature Center for a while. There was a display that taunted us with a captive Box Turtle.

For some reason, they also had a Corn Snake and a Cali King!

We waited the storm out in a covered picnic area. Andrea was pretty damn happy!


As the rain let up a bit, I headed over to the pond at the beginning, where the kids had found all of the young frogs. I saw a few of my own.



A stub-tail!


A slightly longer one!

(That blue in the background is Andrea)

I walked around the pond (scaring in some adult Bullfrogs and a Painted Turtle) and found that one of the kids had left a net. I grabbed it to return to the headquarters. I have never been a proponent of netting... it's cheating. But shee-hit! It works!


So, yeah. We were soaked through to the skin and extremely uncomfortable, so we headed back to the car, tails between our legs, and started the nearly 2 hour ride home. We'd had a bust.

It's not the wasted time or money that bugs me. It's mostly Andrea's dissappointment and the wear and tear on the car. Whatever. Unlike last time here, we didn't lose any cameras to the downpours. And at least we weren't at work, we were together and we were learning. Of course, today's lesson was: Connecticut sucks. A lesson I learn every time I have to drive through that beastly state!

The Good, the Bad and the Needlessly Tragic 6-30-2013

It was day two of our all-Herp vacation and we made plans for our old friend, Ponk. The weather was still up in the air and when we got there at 9ish AM, it was warm and cloudy... but dry.

Things started off promisingly... a couple of small Pickerel Frogs!



We decided we liked slightly overcast days. Because Water Snakes seemed to as well! This guy was right up near the path...

We'd gotten nice pictures of him and had no intention of handling him, except a family was watching us shoot him and thought he was a Water Moccasin. I assured them he was harmless, etc. etc. etc. and picked him up to show them that, even if he bit (I explained their teeth), I would walk away from it. He didn't bite OR musk!


A few yards up, another Water Snake slid into the water. I noodled for him...

And got him! The family came running back to see this one. The dad even touched him.

Nothing hammers home the beauty of snakes more than Andrea proudly holding one!


Then, still within 100 yards of the beginning of the path... we started seeing many basking Nerodia!





We were loving our Northern Water Snake success, but were hoping for some turtles. Unfortunately, our first turtle was this Painted who looked kind of ill...

Puffy eyes, much like the Slider from a few weeks ago in the same area. Once again, human ignorance made me sad... had the person who released a sick Red-Ear tainted all of the turtles in this section of the pond? Including our beloved Spotteds?

It's hard to say; we saw no Spotteds. Our only other turtle was this hatchling Painted taking on the world with vigor... and clean eyes!


While Andrea was tending to the turtle, I saw a dusty Water Snake wriggling between some rocks. I got him by the tail to try to slide him back...

but it was clearly a tug-of-war he was going to win. I couldn't risk injuring him. Here is proof of his existence:

By the way, he let stream after stream of musk loose into my hand while I struggled for this shot. I guess I had it coming!

We saw one other Water Snake in this stretch, but couldn't get a photo.. But still- seven in no time at all! I like it!

We got near the damned Golf Course, a place where Andrea feels uncomfortable, and I hit a sandy bit. (Not a sand trap.) This young American Toad was there!

I broke out into "he was a young American... Toad" and Andrea shushed me, not wanting to disturb the golfers. Hey- if they couldn't pick up the Bowie I was layin' down, they're just  not cool.

Redbacks? Where have they been? Well, the next stretch was indeed a stretch... we missed a skinny young Garter, but didn't see anything else! Finally, we saw some Redbacks.



We got near the populated part of Ponk and could hear voices from a distance. That always alters our plan of attack. We have to get into educational mode. It's not so tough here, since so many of the regulars know us. We talked to the lifeguard on duty and he said there had been a "large black snake" nearby recently and that we could help ourselves to the rocks and stuff.

We helped ourselves to a lovely Ringneck first!

This drew some folks over and we began our "aren't snakes fucking beautiful?" spiel.

Of course, the Ringneck charmed everyone!

This baby Milk Snake was next and everyone oohed and ahhed!


While Andrea was deep in teaching mode with some kids, I found this Garter crawling along!



I had been heading for this humongous skin... which was still moist. It had probably just come from the "large black snake" we'd been told of!

This was well over 3 feet!

So, all was groovy. We let the kids release the snakes. One kid tried to flip the (heavy) stone under which the Milk had crawled as he wanted to show his sister. I stopped him and did it for him, explaining that the animals are very fragile and if the rock is too heavy, an accident could happen. I related my Garter injury story from last week.

So, yay! We felt good. We educated, maybe creating future field herpers! We went on our way.

There was a Swan very near by.


How near by? THIS near by, muthafucker!


So, we've had the good (lots of Water Snakes... and snakes in general). And the bad (sick turtle). Now it's time for the sickening... the disgusting... the needlessly tragic.

We were heading out towards the second pond... the first time we'd ever really done it (it turned out that it was flooded and buggy, so we didn't give it much time. Besides...). We saw three of the kids from the beach, including the kid who was enamoured with the Milk Snake and Andrea. I called out "see any more snakes?" They said no. But there was a snake in one of the kid's hands.

They still had that baby Milk! And it was hanging from the kid's fingers limply.

I quickly took it from them and gently put it in my hand... very limp. I put him on his back and there might have been a slight movement. I was pissed! I walked away, into the woods and placed the snake next to a log and started reprimanding the kids, telling them that you can't  just handle them to death... just enjoy them briefly and let them go! I couldn't stay there... I called to Andrea as I left... they killed the Milk...

She said that they were all just about crying as she passed them. Good.

So, now we have a dilemma. Of course, we enjoy sharing our love of snakes, and who better to share with than with kids? But at what point does our education become wrong? We both feel just horrible at what happened. So much so that we will not be herping that (very snake-fertile) part of the pond anymore.

Who gets blamed? Me, for lifting the rock so the kid could "show his sister" and never actually release the snake alive? Well, he would have crushed it trying to lift the rock. Andrea, for teaching them to admire and enjoy field herping? Not a chance.

Of course, nobody is to blame. It is an unfortunate accident. A needlessly tragic accident. We doubt that any of the three kids will ever forget that moment. Sadly, I doubt we will either.