Social Distancing: Frogs. 3-20-20

It rained Thursday, hard at times. Warm Friday. It was cloudy but not rainy by Friday evening. Hell, it was dark by the time we left. Our friends Teá and Dan were going to the Haunted Swamp to look for critters and we decided to join them, while still keeping a full Joey Ramone away from them and each other. They got there 25 minutes before us and reported sightings of Wood Frogs, Spring Peepers and American Toads. The thought of toads excited us in a way that is hard to put into words. Tingles, I tell ya.

At about 8:30 PM, we hit the trail and were surprised and happy to see a Redback trucking across the path.

The ground was still very moist so we liked our chances.

We met Teá and Dan and scoped out a vernal they had been perusing. The quack of Wood Frogs and the peep of Peepers was music to my ears. Teá pointed out our first American Toad on the year, a wonderful, large chonk of a beast!

My heart swelled.

This Woodie couldn't decide if he should go into the water or not.


On the side of the pool, Andrea spotted our First of Year Peeper.


An American Toad looking quite grumpy in the water.


A little further up the trail, we found another wonderful inlet full of amphibian phun. This Peeper was calling right in front of us, giving us some nice sac.


Some Ride-'em Cowboy Wood Frogs showing me their butt.


3/4 of a Redback.


Sadly, this was the spot that was so full of Fairy Shrimp a week ago. They seem to all be gone already.

These Wood Frogs are not practicing social distancing.


We headed further up the trail in hopes of spotting Blue-spotted Salamanders. Much to our surprise, this Green Frog was out on the path. First of Year and the first one we've ever seen here on a nighttime salamander search.


We didn't see any Blue-spots, or any regular ol' Spotted Sals this night, but the walk into Ambystoma-land wasn't exactly fruitless. Redbacks continued to fulfill our Cuadata needs.


This Peeper hopped into Andrea's path.


A couple more Redbacks were trucking along the path.



I can't tell you how ridiculously happy I am to see toads again.


Heading back, we saw another wee Green... he still has a bit of tail on him!


This little fella was in the path... it appears to be our First of Year Bullfrog!


Another gorgeous American Toad.


My last photographed critter of the night was a big ol' woolybear walking along. Teá told me it was a Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar.


So, that's a 6 species herp night, a good and safe time with friends, and a breath of fresh air. I thank Teá and Dan for suggesting the hike and getting us into the woods. Who knows how much of that we'll be able to do this year?

Life During Quarantine. March 8th and 14th, 2020.

The last days of Winter and livin' ain't easy.

On Sunday, March 8th, we made plans with our friends Teá and Dan to check out the local dens and maybe take a look for some early-bird turtles. The problem is, Coronavirus has been making inroads into our fine state and taking over much of everybody's attention. But it was sunny and mild (mid-40s) so we all met up and peeked at the dens.

Teá scored first with a slim Garter that I'd skipped right past.

(That makes 24 straight months with a Massachusetts snake seen.)

We kept an eye on a known entrance/exit hole and... wait! There was some movement!!!

Looks like somebody else moved in this winter.

We checked some other dens without much luck, but we enjoyed talking and catching up, something we don't get to do enough of. Our last stop, on the way out, was Robles' den, which was getting some good, solid sun by that time. I saw a slight movement in a hole... no way...

This wee Garter was thinking about it, but saw the four mammals hovering outside. If I have ever seen anything cuter, I'm not sure what it is.

This Garter was laying at the bottom of the mound, trying to be inconspicuous.


Unfortunately, Teá and Dan couldn't join us on the next leg of our hike so we made our teary farewells and headed into Norfolk County in hopes of seeing a Spotted Turtle. They seem to stir ahead of other local turtle species and we knew right were to go.

5 minutes in, target acheived.

He was backing in when we saw him so we're lucky to have gotten this.

It was chilly but we walked on, realizing that we were on our first real nature hike of the year. Further up, I took a long distance shot of what might have been a turtle. It was a Spotted.

So, now I had photographed the front end and the back end of a Spotted Turtle. One whole turtle, sort of.

We took an offshoot trail in hopes of flipping a Redback or something but had no luck. Much to our delight, though, we saw a coil of a Garter nestled in the leaves, trying to get some winter sun.


As always, the most beautiful sight...

That was a nice day, getting out, seeing friends and animals and seeing our first turtle of the year. (FOY Spotted Turtle!)

During the week, the Coronavirus threat became a lot worse, or rather, people started taking it more seriously, and it was suggested that people stay home and quarantine themselves. The shit was, as the kids say, hitting the fan.

On Saturday, March 14th, while many people were making a shambles of local supermarkets, we drove to Plymouth County to walk around a favorite pond. Being outside, away from people made good sense. It was going to be about 50° and sunny. We hadn't counted on the breeze, however. It was pretty cool.

Still, we had a lovely walk and every once in a while, we saw a distant turtle up, splash in, or swimming around. Finally, I got my camera on our First-of-Year Painted Turtle, who shot me a wilting glance.


Further up, we got to an area that blocked the chilly breeze that blew across the pond and saw our first Painted Turtle Chorus Line of 2020.


I decided last year to try a Grasshopper ID/count this year. I know, I may live to regret it. But, this is my #1, a Northern Green-striped Grasshopper Nymph (I think). If I'm wrong, somebody please let me know and I'll give up this reckless pursuit.


Then, before leaving, we followed some Wood Frog calls (mixed in with a few lone Peepers and one or two Gray Tree Frogs) down to a vernal. Of course, while we were there, they remained silent. But good luck did attach itself to us and we flipped out first lungless salamander on the year, our FOY Redback.

Just a wee wisp of a 'mander.

So, that's where we're at. Stuck at home (except for work) with the occasional trip to the woods. I'm fine with it all. "Stuck" with Andrea is quite pleasant indeed. And having nine species of reptile and amphibian while it's still the Winter up here isn't so bad.

Always look on the bright side of life. ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Little Big Night. 3-3-2020

The Winter that wasn't  crawls on and on. It hasn't been horrible out but it hasn't been great, but some warm days and a prediction of rain got the two of us all excited to see if any amphibians would be moving on a mild Tuesday night. We had some din-din, then drove about 25 miles to walk through the haunted swamp in search of vernal pool dwellers.

We got there at roughly 8:30 and headed to the trail. It was drizzling and we saw loads of Earthworms pulling back into their holes as our headlamps illuminated them. Upon hitting the trail, we were a bit sad that we didn't hear any frogs yet. No Peepers, no Woods. Were we still just too early? Well, when we headed towards the first vernal, we saw many sets of eyes shining back at us. We weren't early, the Wood Frogs were just quiet. This is our First Of Year:


Obviously just awakened and not yet as horny as they'll soon get, Wood Frogs were plentiful.

Such a joy. First frogs since early November!


We did hear a few weak quacks but the "let's hump everything" cacaphony wasn't going to happen this night. We did hear a few lone Peepers peep, as well, but never saw one. Much to my delight, as we were heading back to the trail after watching Wood Frogs in a pool for a while, Andrea saw a single Spotted Salamander!

We weren't sure we'd see any mole salamanders but there's always one knucklehead that can't wait. We are eternally grateful for our FOY Spotted. Here's another look:


Yes, it was quiet but Wood Frogs were everywhere. You can see plenty of shining eyes in this pic and even a few full-body ride-'em-cowboys.


Here's a close-up ride-'em-cowboy Woodies... you can see why we use that phrase.


One thing that we didn't see last year that was sorely missed... Fairy Shrimp. I haven't any idea why last year was a bust but some pools were teeming with them this year.

So cool. This Wood Frog had a bunch of Fairy Shrimp around him.


We continued up the trail, getting in some walking and looking out for possible salamanders. I got excited when I thought we'd found our first Redback on the year, but closer inspection showed it to be our first Blue-spotted instead!

From 6 feet up, I'd have said it was a leadback! He was very small, about the size of a medium Redback.

Continuing up the path, we pointed to a tree a few yards up and noted it as our turn-around spot. We made it there, turned around, and saw this second Blue-spotted that we somehow hadn't stepped on. He was just as small as the other one.


Heading back, we kept our eyes peeled for more salalamanders but saw none. Oddly enough, we still haven't seen any lungless sals, just these two mole species. That's fine... they will come. Of course, we peeked back into some of the vernals on the way out and photographed a few more Woods.



That was our Tuesday night. We doubled our species count for 2020 (all the way up to SIX now!) and while it wasn't Big Night, it was a chance to see some animals for the first time in a while.

The following Saturday, March 7th, we were invited to take a tour of the Aquarium's Turtle Care facility, a volunteer perk we like to take advantage of every year. We saw the remaining turtle rehabs from this light cold-stunned year. I'm not going to post on social media but I figure the 5 or 6 people who ever look at this blog would like to see a Loggerhead going after a chunk of halibut.

There is nothing we do that is more rewarding than turtle rescue. It sucks sometimes but it is worth it.

By the way, I asked about the Green Turtle that we'd found this year, our only turtle.  (You can see that story here.) It turns out, it lived and is now at Sea World and will be released this year. YAY!

February in Massachuetts

It can be cold and it can be annoying, especially when both Andrea and I have had our ups and down healthwise. Thankfully, it's the shortest month but it always feels the longest. And we have no Everglades trip this year to look forward to, so... yuck. There have been a handful of sunny, not horrible days with temps in the 40s or 50s but early February left the ground frozen deeper than in January so our local den sites were always snake-free

Monday, February 24th, it was going to be in the 60s (global what?) and sunny and we knew we'd see some noggins up. We felt very fortunate to have banged in sick that day. But nobody was up yet. Of course the walk and the Vitamin D did us both a lot of good, but we really had hoped for a basking snake.

We ran into a couple that we often see on hikes in this Suffolk County park and stopped to talk with them for a spell. After that, we decided to hit the Valley of Nerodia on the way back to the car. I'm glad we did... that there was a coil nestled at the base of the tree, right near a known den entrance.

A young Northern Water Snake had emerged to get some February sun.

Needless to say, this made our day.

This snake also marks the 23rd straight month of seeing a Massachusetts snake. Obviously, knowing the den sites helps but perhaps this Global Warming thing isn't just a hoax to piss off the Right.

We eagerly await the upcoming months and emergence of salamanders, frogs and turtles. It's sure been a cold, cold winter. (That's a Rolling Stones quote in case you didn't know.)

One Down, Eleven to Go. Ending Januray.

On Sunday, January 26th, it was decent out so we went to try to photograph some birds. We saw a few, though I didn't get many great shots. Here are a few...

Female House Sparrow.


European Starling.

Say what you will... these are gorgeous birds.

Mourning Dove.


This Gray Squirrel was amusing.


It was so nice out (a bit chilly and windy, but sunny) that we decided to go a bit further and check a den spot or two. Sure enough, on Sly's Den, a dusty Ribbon Snake was stretched out.

We're pretty sure this is the same one that we saw in this spot a couple of weeks ago. Obviously has something he's workin' on. Top secret snake stuff.


On Monday (Jan. 27th), Andrea came in from work and said that the night sky was abuzz with Crows. We went out to listen and watch them as they had a Winter Roost. Fascinating. I couldn't get a good  picture but this one is pretty cool.


February is tomorrow and I'm sick again. I should just be put out of my misery.