Spring-time for Gyro 5-28-2016

It was going to be a hot Saturday. Like 95°F hot. Stream salamandering sounded like the best idea ever. We were going to be in Western MA for a quick peek into the MA Sheep and Wool Fest and, as is our custom, we would hit the nearby State Forest. Crystal, cool waters filled with salamanders. Including Springs, which would be our main target.

The Wool Fest was lovely, as always. Andrea got up close and personal with a Templar Sheep.

After, we headed towards the State Forest but, as is our custom again, we stopped at a creamery on the way for ice cream. While there, we flipped stones behind the place. We once found the ever-elusive Massachusetts Redbellied Snake there. Not this time. But the ice cream was great.

When we got to the forest, we decided to hit the "Haunted Campsite" first to see if anything was retreating from the heat inside the wreckage. When we got there, we saw that... the wreckage was gone. They had demolished the building and cleared everything away. Still, there was some good flipping to be done with the residue.

This post from last year has "before" shots and a link to the history of the place.

We made our way down to the hot spot.... the place we wanted to start our stream searching. It was hot for sure and it took a while to find any animals. A cool spot in a wooded area finally got us started with a couple of Redbacks.

Heading closer to the water, we flipped a respectable sized American Toad who was hanging out in the wall.

Andrea saw this similar sized one hopping through the brush.

The Springtime mating of the toads is an amazing explosion of noise; a frenzy of amphibians. We were lucky enough to see it one year. Looks like we missed the 2016 orgy but strands of toad eggs were everywhere in the shallows of the river.

Speaking of explosions, tiny toadpoles were bursting out of some of the eggs right in front of our eyes!

This small Two-lined Salamander larvae was unimpressed.

We crossed the river (which was pretty low) to get to some quieter, shady spots. We wanted to find some Spring Salamanders, which are incredibly tough in this state.

We flipped a rock that had plenty of movement under it. As the silt cleared, we had an adult Two-lined and a Spring larvae.

Off to a good start.

Andrea flipped a stream-side rock and got us another Two-lined (who was quite shy) and an erythrystic Redback, a morph that is quite common in this spot. We hadn't been counting on seeing any because of the heat, so this was a real treat.

Beautiful Two-lined Salamanders are easy to see here...

I mean, just look at this habitat... such perfection.

As I was walking along the edge of the stream, a bright Eft was truckin' along like nobody's business. He would not hold still for a decent shot, just barreling through the rocks with eft-like abandon. Finally, he stopped for a breath.

Whereas that first Spring larvae had left me with some ID doubts, the next one was pretty obvious. This guy is a bit older and is a beauty.

But there's nothing like the thrill of flipping a streamside rock and having a large, pink salamander dart out. This Spring was over 6" long and as pretty as they come.

When he returned to the water, he snuggled up with a Slimy Sculpin.

(^ Best. Picture. Ever... courtesy of Andrea)

Since we were on a roll, we flipped another (somewhat smaller) adult Spring!

Four Gyros... no easy feat in Massachusetts.

Andrea then flipped our first Dookie. Finally! Four Springs before our first Desmog.

It was right around here that I heard a splash and a swear. Andrea lost her footing and went into the drink. Camera... wet. (Still not working) Bruised hand and elbow. Needless to say, she was pretty pissed.

I tried to sooth her anger with a small Garter who was digesting a meal.

Andrea was upstream a bit, soggy but undaunted, when she called "newt"! I made my way over to her and scared up a Pickerel Frog.

I got there before the post-Eft Eastern Newt had decided to move on.

Here's another shot of him being swarmed by Blacknose Dace.

Earlier, we had noticed the Dace munching on toad eggs, or maybe even freshly hatched tadpoles. Everybody eats.

Hey look... here's another Pickerel!

Going back to the car, we looked off the bridge and saw tons of trout. These Brook Trout were there by the dozens, swimming against the current. Spawning? I don't know... I thought that was in the fall. But there were 4 or 5 pockets , thick with fish.

I'll bet that in the 7 years I have been keeping records here, this is my first 3 fish species blog post.

Heading back up to the road from the fish photo session, I flipped a couple more Dookies.

Soaked, achey and thirsty, we headed out. We went back to the ice cream place for drinks and bathrooms... and flipping. No Redbelly but I managed a cranky little Garter shoestring who is in a shed.

So that was a pretty successful day, I'd say. We also gave a half-hearted attempt at a possible Wood Turtle area but came up turtle-less. Still, we had a great day despite the spills and loss of camera. Our main target was found and we stayed cool in the 96° (!) weather. No complaints here.

The Total Destruction of a Beloved Park. 5-25-2016

Hot Wednesday! Even though I was still a tad sick, we made it over to a local Norfolk County park by 6 PM after work because it was still 80°. Surely something would be up in the twilight. The place we were heading has Milks and we still needed our First Of Year Milk Snake.

It was certainly warm out. We saw nothing but were enjoying the walk. Any day now, turtles will be nesting. We neared the end of the trail, about to head on to our beloved "Racer Alley" when something looked amiss. Large, stacked logs were visible through the trees. When we turned on to the alley, our hearts, jaws and stomachs hit the ground. Total decimation.


This rock strewn hill rises up to train tracks. We have seen 7 of the 14 species of Massachusetts snakes here, 3 species of turtles nesting, and photographed countless bird species here. Beyond the right side of that photo is, according to the DCR Website, the "largest remaining freshwater marsh on the middle Charles River".

Devastated.


We swore. We cried. We found a squashed Milk Snake, a poor creature that was shaken out of the hill and run over while trying to escape the destruction of its home. The removed trees were being mulched and shot into the holes between the remaining rocks. You know, into where animals den and live. A mile of hillside habitat... stripped and flattened.

We headed into the trails on the other side of this horrifying site, to see if any other parts of the park were being raped. A small Wood Frog, who probably lived in the marshy areas being steamrolled over, was hiding out in a tunnel.


The rest of the park looked normal. We went all the way up to our former board-line spot and all remained as it was. We asked hikers if they knew what was going on and nobody did. Nobody seemed to care, either. We started to think it was being done to make trails easier for humans... destruction of animal homes for human ease. Obviously, we were angry and hurting. We still are.

We walked Racer Alley a bit more on the way back, as dusk set in. We said that if we found anything alive, we would relocate it. We saw nothing. When we hit the woods trail again, just off the destroyed area, Andrea found a shell-shocked little Garter. We took him about 50 feet up-trail to a safer place.


We were beaten. Such an important place for so many creatures and it has been flattened.

On the way home, the powers-that-be showed us a wee bit of mercy. A beautiful, golden Milk Snake slithered out from a bush in front of us.

It started using Andrea like a jungle gym.


Such a beautiful specimen. I got a photo that Bob and Matt will like here...


While a FOY Milk is a good salve for some of the pain we're experiencing, it also hammers home why we're feeling this concern. These animals need help, not habitat destruction.

Now, two days later, I finally called the DCR and asked what was going on. It turns out that the train company (Amtrak? Not sure what trains run on those tracks) owns that hill, from the tracks until it hits the ground. They do big maintenance like this every 15 years or so and, evidently, it was due. I asked about the abutting marsh and the officer said that if any damage is done (to any part of the DCR property), they have to make reparations with the state. (Not that it does any misplaced or dead animals any good.) I asked him to please have someone keep an eye on the work being done. I know machines need access but the formerly 5 foot wide path is about 15 feet wide now and everything is flattened right up to the reeds in most spots. Utter destruction.

Oh, and it's turtle nesting season.

So that's that. There's not a damn thing we can do about it... just remember what a great place it was and hope that nature can heal its scars and animals find their ways back to the area. It was our best Racer spot by far and anyone in MA knows, that species ain't so easy up here.

I will continue to mourn for this place and the thousands of animals that used to live in this hill.

Turtles with Dirty Faces. 5-22-2016

We were up early on Sunday morning, out the door, checked out and eating an amazing breakfast buffet by 8 AM. After we were stuffed, we went straight to Box Turtle Field to see who was up. It was 55° and drizzling... that, my dear, is perfect Box Turtle weather and, indeed, it didn't take long.

We were looking around a pile of branches, peering through to the ground, hoping for a glimpse of shell. Suddenly, Andrea said "duh" and pointed at this Boxie, mid-munch, staring at us, right out in the open.

We photographed him for Tim's records.

We saw the larger of the two youngsters from the previous day in the same spot as before. We noticed that it had been notched. It is now an official Box Turtle.

Further up the path, we saw this hungry gal... also mid-munch.

Feeding time, for sure.

About 15 feet away, this shy one was in some brush.


This was almost too easy... this gal, who Tim has ID'd as #908, was also up looking for a snack.


We peeked in where we had seen the smallest turtle from the day before and were delighted to see it not only up and with its eyes open, but also eating!


We decided to walk the edge of the woods down to the pond. On the way, we saw Hook-Shell from the day before. She was truckin' along, probably also looking for succulent worms.

Right at the edge of the woods, abutting an open area, another shy turtle was hanging out.


I made my way back to the pond. Hey! That's not a Box Turtle!

One lone Painted Turtle was up testing the cool, rainy weather.

Back in the woods, Andrea found the most brilliantly colored Box of the weekend. I had walked right past him.

We later learned that he is #78.


I was still a bit under the weather so our plans of scouring the entire other field and campgrounds were shortened to, "let's just peek over there a bit." It actually turned into me resting at a picnic table, then dragging my carcass up to look around some fallen trees. Tim said this side is tough and after the ease with which we had seen 9 turtles, I wasn't really in the mood for working. But we took a peek anyway.

There are a lot of open spots on that side and I had just said something to the effect of "turtles know what they want, and they don't want this side" when I saw a turtle. With a dirty face.

I was wondering what the hell was wrong with its shell when we realized it was a transmittered specimen.

Obviously, we took pictures for Tim, thinking we had found something special. In fact, we had.

We went up to the offices and saw Bob, the head honcho, engaged in conversation. We politely waited. For a while. Finally, we cut in and told him of our find. He wanted it brought in. And all of the turtles we had seen. Oops. He kind of "deputized" us, saying that we could handle them. So we went out to try to find the turtles.

Saturday, it had been easy. All 5 turtles that we had seen were still more or less in the same spot when Tim got there. Not today. The sun had come out and the turtles seemed to take that as a cue to disperse and hide. The transmittered one, who they hadn't seen for some time, was nowhere to be found. Of course, we took forever to find the same area. Not as easy to navigate as Box Turtle field. We failed to find her.

While searching Box Turtle Field, we saw a speedy Ribbon Snake, the first snake we had ever seen there. It was warming up.

There was another snake about 10 feet away that we only saw a black tail streak into the leaves... small Racer? At any rate, it pulled an amazing disappearing act. Much like the Boxies had.

In fact, the only turtle that we were able to find was Andrea's neon orange stunner. We took him in for weight and measurements. This is #78. He was notched in the 80s.


We returned good ol' #78 to his spot after his check-up and stopping to show him to a few families and talking about him. While carrying him back, we noticed more Painters had emerged for a sun-worshipping session.


We had spent far longer than expected there. The fruitless search for Ol' Transmitter and the others had cut deep into the day, though we regret nothing. But we had planned to stop by a Plymouth County spot on the way home and we now had to decide what parts to see in the short time we had.

On the road into this State Forest, we saw a car full of young men hopping in and out, photographing the ground, picking something up, driving a few feet... releasing whatever it was... I pulled up next to them and they laughed and said it was a turtle. We pulled over as they drove off and saw a gorgeous male Painted Turtle trucking along.

Not sure what those guys were doing. We saw them later on, posing in front of a pond. I guess they were just having fun and goofing off. I'm glad they didn't steal or eat the turtle.

We got to our first spot and flipped a grumpy Fowler's Toad.

Now that we have broken the seal on Fowler's, we're seeing plenty of them.

We got to a small sheet of tin. There has been a shoestring Garter under it before. I got my camera ready and focused while Andrea flipped. There were two occupants and they were too speedy. One, a small Garter, dropped low, bookmarked and became ferocious.


The escapee was a little wisp of a Ringneck.

This 4 1/2 inches of terror crawled into the lining on the wrist of Andrea's raincoat.


It was getting late so we had to choose the next, and last, spot. We chose a bog. It was still plenty sunny there so we figured it might be more productive than a shady path through a wooded area. The bog had some Bullfrogs present.

(^ That guy fooled me for a bit... that looks like a Green's dorsolateral ridge but it isn't.)


I flipped a rock on a sandy mound and was surprised to see a decent sized Ringneck all coiled up. We'd never seen one at this particular spot before.


Andrea made a really pleasant find when she found what is (unbelievably) only our second Pickerel on the year. And our other one was an emaciated guy flipped in a stream in April, still very much in hibernation.

This one is pretty big and in good flesh.

We hit one last pond on the way out in hopes of seeing a sleeping Gray Tree Frog in the surrounding foliage. We saw none but we saw a few more Bullfrogs and plenty of tadpoles (Toads?).




We got home by 7 PM, another long weekend of herping in the books. More long herp weekends are in the plans over the next couple of weeks. I'd better get my sorry ass feeling better of I might not survive to see 55.

Thanks again to Andrea for planning this birthday weekend turtle retreat. 12 Box Turtles is an amazing weekend by anyone's standards.