A half hour on a Wednesday... 12-17-2014

It hasn't been sub-zero for much of this week and it has been rainy so I figured that if I had a chance  after work on Wednesday (forecasts were calling for 50°), I'd take a quick walk. Of course, the sun sets so early now that I'd have to hurry. I blew off the company Christmas party and decided to see if any salamanders were up at Brook Farm.

I pass a pond in Newton on the way home and I've been noticing what look like Hooded Mergansers hanging out there for a week or so. Sure enough, with my zoom lens, I was able to see that yes, they are indeed Hoodeds!

Of course in the setting sun, I couldn't get great shots, but it's still a thrill to see these guys among the Canada Geese and Mallards that are usually here.

That front guy was preening so much I'm surprised he has any feathers left.

As I pulled into Brook, I thought I should keep my eyes open for deer in the fields as it was dusk. Umm.. ask and ye shall receive! A White-tail Deer was grazing on the far end of the field.


Next year, I'll be trying to photograph and ID 30 species of mammal. Wanna bet I don't see one of these guys all year?!

But I was there for salamanders and I only had about 15 minutes before it would be past dusk and I'd be officially trespassing. The vernals are super-full right now so many of my pond-side flipping logs are submerged. But a rock I call Old Reliable was just that once again... a pair of skittery Redbacks were there, for a moment at least!


With that, I called it a success and headed out to get home and write this thrilling report.

You're welcome.

De nada.

December is for the birds! 12-13 & 14, 2014

Damn, it has been cold. I hate December. It is decidedly not the most wonderful time of the year. I am of the mind that the first snake of the year is the hap-hap-happiest time of the year. But that is a long way off so we must make do with what we have here in New England. So, we bundled up on Saturday the 13th and hit Allendale in search of Two-Lines!

We flipped plenty for possible Redbacks but came up dry. Not that anything else was very dry... we've been pelted with rain and snow of late. But flipping was fruitless. Andrea took a rest on an old, rusted something-or-nother and almost tipped backwards.

I looks like most or all of my boards in this spot have been turned to kindling. Oh well... Spotted Sals and Redbacks all seem to like charred wood. May this spot next year be a healthy Caudata hot-spot.

Two-Lined Spot #1 was a deep creek this time. Often, it is a damp creek bed that is easy pickings. This day, it was deep and cold and made me look bad! So, we carried on and got to Two-Line Spot #2, which looks like this:


The sunlight was going fast and the one larvae I saw squiggled away easily. I was starting to panic. I was soaked and muddy and it was getting very hard to see. I flipped a log that was half in the water and a cloud of mud swirled up, obscuring my vision even more. Damn it! I dipped the dip-net in and blindly gave a pass. Much to my surprise, an adult Two-Lined Salamander was in it when I pulled it up!


As this might be our only December herp (Gawd, I hope not!) we were pretty happy that we had accomplished this small but rewarding feat. We went home, dried up and warmed our bones.

On Sunday, the 14th, we had made plans with our fried Matt S. to go to Plum Island and look at birds. He is heading home for the holidays so we relished our last chance (for a while) to taint him with our elderly ways. We got up there a bit after 10 AM and were disappointed that the beach areas were temporarily closed, but our birding adventure was not to be stopped.

A pond that was good for us last time out was good again. Matt is a knowledgeable chap and he grabbed the binoculars and scanned the pond, which was full of ducks!


Intent on helping with our Big Year, he asked, "do you have Gadwalls?" Nope... but now I do! Thank you! Big Year #108, Gadwalls! A matched set!


Andrea got a group of shots of more ducks arriving to this spot...


Matt pointed out a Pintail but every time I looked, it was just a pointy butt in the air. Finally, I got Big Year #109... Northern Pintail!


We hit #110 with a couple of Northern Shovelers, both females.

There was a group of 5 or 6 of these, all gals.

So, that was cool!

We went to another area and it was cold! The sun was up and it was supposedly 40° but it felt sub-zero! Andrea saw these weird water flowers.

In an amazing turn of events, three Mallard males swam up and must have eaten those flowers!! Weird!

We suggested that if Mallards weren't so common, they would be a huge birder target... they sure are beautiful!

We headed over to another spot and I got a crappy shot but it is our official #111, the Red-breasted Nuthatch!


By this point, the beach wasn't yet open so we went out and got some massive, messy subs and ate greedily. Then we went back and hit the far side of the park, the only spot with beach access. (We didn't know at the time, but human bones had washed up on the beach, thus the closing!)

There wasn't a shit-ton of birds present but it was beautiful. The waves were crashing in... high tide was a'comin'!


There was some other life present... like a Sand Worm!


A hobo!


A Hermit Crab!


We also saw a few Sand Dollars, whatever they are, really.


So, we called it a day... not many water fowl were out and about and no shorebirds were present. On the road out, however, there was an interesting sight... a raptor was hovering over a marshy area.

He never turned around, so we never saw his face. Is it sad that it reminded me of Birdemic: Shock and Terror? All of a sudden, it swooped down and out of sight. There was no explosion. We quickly drove to the next sighting area to see if we could see where it went. I did one of my patented Dutch parking jobs. The bird came back up and I got an IDable shot...

#112, a Rough-legged Hawk!

So, five new birds ain't too shabby! While driving home, Wee Matt and Andrea fell asleep (Andrea with needles in her hands and yarn on her fingers, her knitting project jiggling with the motion of the car) while I responsibly carried on. Rest, kids. Old man Mike will see that you arrive home safely. And I did. Then I napped.

Like a Gall Bladder, November is gone. 11-30-2014

What a weird November this has been. Sure, herping ended for us early in the month but we are hardcore never-say-diers so it's always only a matter of time before we'll go out and poke around. We got sidelined this year because Andrea had surgery on Nov. 17th... she is now without a nasty gall bladder. So, she was bed-ridden for some time.

Not to say that she hasn't tested her own limits. On Saturday the 22nd, a mere 5 days after being sliced open, she wanted to try a short walk to look for birds. We went to the Arboretum because it is close by and well-birded. It was cold, however... mid-30s. Though she wasn't in pain, her endurance wasn't all it could be and we had to turn back fairly quickly. As for birds, I continued to master my "missed it by that much" technique.

That branch is in such good focus!

The next day, it was into the mid-50s. We went over to Brook Farm to poke around. We honestly thought that some of the sunny den sites might have a Garter out sunning... it was very nice under the rays. We encountered a few Redbacks... our first herps since the surgery.



This one wanted to go and say hi to Andrea who couldn't bend down. He got all familiar with her mittens!


We didn't get too far that day. After about a half hour, Andrea tired again. The stamina thing was going to take some time. I had to get some groceries, but Andrea could bird from the car while she waited. There were some House Sparrows in the bushes in front of the car, looking lovely in the late sunlight.


A couple of days later, we had another warm spell. Mid-50s again! I rushed home from work so we could see if anything was awake in our friends' yard. There was... another curious Redback!


Well, everything went to hell after that. Snow, ice, sub-freezing temps... what a horrible week! The good part of that is, Andrea stayed put and recovered more. On Saturday, the 29th, we drove to a couple of Antique Malls to practice some warm, inside walking. Then we figured we were ready for the Big Time on Sunday.

On Sunday, the 30th, we were trying to decide what to do... go birding or just stay close to home. We decided to stay nearby and check in on a vernal pool that we believe to be home to endangered salamanders. We have a lot of reason to think that we have pinpointed the correct area but last time here, it was still pretty dry.

So, we took the walk slowly but surely. stopping at stream areas to look for Two-Lined larvae. We found a couple with little effort.


That second specimen is probably in his last winter as an all-aquatic. He was getting pretty big and moved as fast as an adult and it looks like his lines are forming.

Thought he temps were again in the 50s, the main pond here still had ice. As much as I hate the cold, the design of the ice at the shore, where waves were pushing it in, was kind of cool.


We got to our vernal and we were extremely happy to see it filled!


We did some dipping and plenty of searching but saw none of the larvae we were looking for. A nearby log gave us a pair of Redbacks, though.


By now, Andrea was cooked but we were still pretty far from the car. We headed back and I vowed to find her an adult Two-Line while she rested for a bit.

I saw two and they both handed me my ass. I am a failure, albeit with just a lower-case "f".

So, a 2 1/2 hour hike after less than two weeks of getting sliced open and parts of her taken out ain't too shabby! I'm proud of her. We made it through November. Only a few more months to go before we can herp properly again. Oh man... I need to get planning that Everglades trip!

The Dookie Game 11-15-2014

With winter firmly entrenched in the region (the calendar might disagree, but ice and snow means winter in my book), there's not much one can do with the herping. Some very cold-tolerate stream salamanders are all we can find at this time of year, and we'd have to drive 45 miles or so to get to the nearest Dookie (Northern Dusky Salamander). With that in mind, we decided to  play a game that we invented last year... the Dookie Game. The rules are simple. The first person to find a Dook gets lunch bought for them. The two times we have played, Andrea once once and the other time, we found no Dookies. The game was afoot!

We went to a place in Worcester County that we have found Two-Lines and Dooks and we swear it's gotta be good for Spring Sals, though we have not found them yet. With temps below freezing during the night, the cascading waters were icy and very chilly in the 38° sunlight.



I set to work looking on the sunny side.

That water just froze my fingers so fast they were numb. Kinda nice, really!

I finally saw a Two-Lined Salamander and had to wrestle with him to get a photo! I finally did... a real beautiful specimen!


The dip net came in handy for this wee Two-Lined larvae...


Why can't we find ice-encrusted sticks in the summer, when we need them?


The next find should have netted me a lunch but it was such an aberration, I was uncomfortable calling it in the field. This guy was in a seepy dribble right next to the stream, not in water per say.

It is in fact a Dookie larvae but his light coloring and translucence is very odd. 3/4" of cuteness at any rate!

I made good next time out, though... with a triumphant grin I said to Andrea, "Lunch is going to be so sweet!" I found a small adult Dookie!


Now, to most herpers, Northern Duskies are another throw-away herp... common and not really pretty. But we love them! The fact that we have to drive 45 minutes before we are in their territory... and we do! should prove our Desmog love!

Mission accomplished, we could have left. But we wanted to explore the place a bit more. There is plenty more to look at here, so we went UP!


The top was much swampier than we have ever encountered it before. So much so in parts that we wondered if we were seeing vernals. Should we also be looking for Ambystoma?

This spot was lovely... a bright yellow carpet of fallen maple leaves.

While snapping that picture, we heard some tapping from above. We searched the trees and found...

#107, a Hairy Woodpecker!

All of our previous Hairys turned out to be Downys, so I threw it to the experts and they all agree: Hairy!! YAY!

Nom nom nom.

We continued on, exploring trails new to us. Tenacity paid off when we flipped a Redback!

Most of one anyway! With a smattering of snow and the ground starting to freeze, we're happy as pie with our 5/8 Redback!

We found another great trickling stream area and I had some Two-lines hand me my ass but Andrea found one under a massive rock that posed for a minute...


Seepy, with a light trickle... I still maintain that this place will get us some Spring Salamanders some day!

Just not this day.

But we had a great time and consider it a success! For winning the Dookie Game, I chose a wonderful gourmet pizza place that we found. Super-yummy!