Hoping to catch some of the unexpected lightning we had the day before, we headed to a turtle and frog hotspot in Middlesex County late Sunday morning. The trouble was, it was very cool and when we got there, it was breezy and downright chilly. Still, it's a good bird place and we enjoyed being outside. Sadly, plenty of humans were out, too.
A mammal we don't hate is the Muskrat. (All non-homo sapien mammals are well loved by us.) There were many Muskrats out and about this day. Here is one of them.
I was able to add a few birds to the meager 2020 count, too, including the Great Blue Heron atop a bird box.
We were well into our walk before we saw our first reptiles. This stack of Painted Turtles was sharing a goose's nest.
Soon after, we saw this coil of Water Snake ladled out next to the path.
That seems to have broken the seal because now that we were on the other side of the pond, the sun came out a bit and we started seeing mobs of Painted Turtles.
And another Water Snake.
There were plenty of Painters up, but many of them were impossible to photograph. I gave it a shot with these two that were hidden behind bushes. I focused on the front guy's head and got a pretty good shot!
Much to my delight, this shot inspired my talented friend Slade to create a fictional 1960s jazz record out of it!
I fucking LOVE this!
I also fucking loved being in the right place at the right time.. Painterama!
Let's take a closer look at that top guy's yoga!
Basking is serious business.
Andrea finally saw our first and only Garter on the day, a tannin stained orange gal.
We were surprised by the lack of frogs, but you just can't predict these things. We heard them, but never saw them. But the turtle count was soaring!
Finally, Andrea came through again. After hearing Leopards calling all day, we finally saw our First of Year in the still-very-dark flesh.
And then a (probable) Bull!
She'd broken the seal! Here's a Green!
A few more Painters before leaving...
Our last critter was a female Wood Duck, also atop a bird box.
Nothing fancy, just a great walk looking at animals. A day out of the stinking house.
Quarantine continues, but we haven't yet been told not to go outside for fresh air, so on Andrea's lunchbreak on Tuesday. March 31st, we took a walk through a local park, hoping to photograph some birds while we stretched our legs. It was cool but sunny and, unfortunately, many other possibly-disease-ridden humans were out and about. Ridiculous.
But, cutting to the chase, we saw an old foundation that we'd never noticed before about 50 feet from the path. I flipped a few rocks around there and got a couple of very different looking Redbacks.
That Leadback is such a beast, I'd have thought it was a Dookie if we were within range!
The following Saturday (April 4th) promised a cool and cloudy day. I'd planned on staying in, but Andrea suggested we go out. Considering we'd had a soaking rain all day Thursday and Friday, we started thinking it might be good Salamander weather. We headed to our local spot before noon.
We when we got there, we saw that the sun was trying to poke out and it might be shaping up to be OK after all. True to our quest, our first observation was another mismatched pair of Redbacks.
Redbacks were plentiful, in fact.
Since the sun was giving it a shot at warming things up, we decided to check some Garter Dens. Up by Robles, we saw no snakes, but flipped a few rocks for salamanders. This rock had a previously unnoticed Garter next to it. He looked coooold.
Our rule is "Don't handle snakes near their hibernaculum sites", but I broke it to make sure he was alive. He was stiff, but his tongue came out and he started to move in Andrea's hands.
I flipped the rock.
Now, that was unexpected. Again, I picked him up and he was stiff as a board. Then, everso slowly, a tongue came out and did a slow flick. We figured these guys had spent the night under that rock and I'm pretty sure the temps got below 40 so these snakecicles were super chill. We pointed their heads right at a known opening to the underground and they slowly slid in.
So, maybe we'd see some snakes after all! We went down to the Valley and the sun was shining even more. Right away, Andrea found a Garter basking.
A Water Snake, possibly the same fella as last week, was emerging from his tree-hole.
We checked out our "new" den nearby, but saw nobody out. On the way back through the Valley, however, another Garter has come out.
Checking on our Nerodia pal on the way by, we noticed he'd been joined by a curious Garter.
This thin Garter had also come out in the last couple of minutes.
Before leaving this squamate-rich Valley, we saw a small, still-striped Water Snake had joined the basking crew.
Atop the side of the Valley, guarding the exit, was this Garter.
So, I guess we'll be seeing snakes. It's official.
We checked an area that hasn't been fruitful (snakeful?) for a number of years and noticed a path going back, veering far off the main path. This, of course, interested us. It also paid off right away because we saw a Blue-spotted Salamander under a log about 10 feet from a vernal.
Business Bluey.
We took a winding trail all around, exploring new areas. We heard Peepers, Woodies and Leopard Frogs calling but never laid eyes on any of them. It was a magical, humanless stretch of previously unexplored path.
By the time we got back to the main path, we'd overshot the Cottonwood Dens, a spot we were very interested in seeing now that the sun was burning bright. So we went in our usual exit from this spot. This 5 Redback flip was the same log we had a 12-pack under last week.
It's very hard to describe the sights we were treated to once we hit the densite. Piles of Garters, warming in the sun, and little male heads shaking back and forth, thinking about one thing... Snake-Sex. There's at least four here.
This shot shows two more approaching the pile.
Not far away, these three little fellas were basking, not yet interested in hanky-panky.
Here's a short clip showing the head waving of the top, interested male...
Obviously, after that, we were eager to get to the Rock Wall Dens, which haven't been very lucky this year. Again, we saw nobody up there. A bike trail has sprung up that goes almost through their old basking spot. I suspect they've changed their habits.
We decided to head "up" to a usually human and off-leash-dog infested area, but hit an off trail vernal we remembered on the way there. Stretching out near the path around this secluded pool was the most gorgeous female Garter of the day. Big and beautiful BBW.
Now that's a good-lookin' snake.
Up at the popular spot, we walked along, hoping to see a distant turtle. It was full of virus-carrying humans and entitled off-leash dogs and was a bit annoying. This gorgeous tannin stained Garter was basking up near the path. A dog walked right over him but only disturbed him a little.
This Long Tall Sally was the only other Garter we saw up there.
Frankly, we had to get away. The humanity is just sickening and the sight of plastic bags full of dog shit thrown into bushes 10 feet away from a waste receptacle put me into a mood. Ask me about the dog shit bags hidden under logs some time, if you want.
Anyhoo, we wanted to check the day's den progress on the way out. The sun had been cooking nicely. Yep- the Cottonwoods were action-packed!
The Valley offered us a hilarious sight on the way out to the car. That poor Nrodia was now smothered under a pile of Garters!
So, only one salamander target but countless bonus snakes... no complaints here. Except the plethora of stinking humans, it was great. Sadly, with the quarantine, there are now more humans out in the wild areas. Kind of defeats the purpose. GET OUTTA MY WOODS!!!
I feel like a totally useless blob these days, puttering around the house (when I'm not napping) while Andrea works from home. I'd feel too guilty going out without her, so when we got a chance to take a quick walk on her lunchtime, I was rarin' to go.
We went over to our local cemetery to walk around the pond, hoping to see some animals. It was far cooler than we'd expected, so turtles seemed unlikely. But a couple of Red-eared Sliders were defying the cool breeze and catching some rays.
Considering these "invasive" (released, unwanted pets, fuck you very much) have a home range in the Southern US, they are quite cold tolerant. Pure turtle yoga, here.
These are our First of Year Red-ears.
We also added Common Grackle to our meager 2020 bird count.
These guys' electric calls were buzzing all around us.
The next day was a nice one: warm and sunny. Unfortunately, Andrea was stuck at her workstation. Finally, at a bit after 2 PM, she said we could go out. We headed straight over to our Spotted Turtle place, somewhere we don't go near once the 'skeeters come out. Sure enough, there were some turtles up, but they presented a problem... they could only be seen through the bushes. I did my best with these two Spotteds. (The second one, on the right, had only just hoisted up while I was fiddling with the camera.)
This Painted Turtle was even tougher.
As we quietly snuck past the spot, the second Spotted and the Painter slid into the water, but the initial Spotted stayed put, unwilling to give up his late afternoon perch.
Further up the path, we poked through some bushes and saw some Painted Turtles up. These two were NOT practicing social distancing.
This guy, on the far end of the very same log, was.
Shadows were getting a bit long and we regretted not getting out earlier for snakes. But we thought we still had a shot at some tenacious knuckleheads and we were right. This well-warmed Garter zipped into the brush.
While I was struggling to get even that lamentable photo, Andrea noticed this guy right at her feet.
Our last encounter was this Redback that you would think that I flipped and placed him on to this piece of moss, but no... he saw us coming and crawled up there, hoping to get into a field guide.
The next day was Saturday, so we didn't have to wait for anything, though we did get a late start. We drove out to out Blandings Turtle place to see in anyone was up. It's also a wonderful Wood Frog spot where we saw some fantastic orgies last year.
While driving through the town near the refuge, we noticed there was still snow around. We were much further north than we'd been so far this year. When we got there and got out of the car, we realized that reptiles might not be happening. It was pretty cool. Still, this brave Painter was the first thing we saw.
We went down to the vernals but it was silent. No Wood Frogs at all. We realized that we were just too early, not only for Blandings, but for springtime Wood Frog hijinks. We ran into a fellow herper (Hi Patrick!) who was hoping just like we were. Maybe next week.
We walked a bit further on before taking our usual route. Up there we saw a robust Redback, trying to hide under his own foot.
We could hear running water, so I went down to explore, having never seen a stream here before. I did find the water but do not know it's source. Maybe there had been enough snow in this part of the state to do this?
Back on the trail, we saw a few more distant Painted Turtles not obeying the social distancing rules.
Further up, way off in the distance, we saw a Painter that seemed to understand the importance of this pandemic.
That was about it. We saw some birds and heard some Peepers but we never saw even one frog. This plump little tennis ball of a bird is a Swamp Sparrow, only the second one I've ever photographed.
