For the first time ever, we decided to take our chances and try out some winter herping in Massachusetts. We’ve never bothered before mid-March before, but thanks to other people in the Northeast Chapter, I realized that it could be possible to find a few amphibians!
January 12:
We headed out to a small sanctuary about 20 minutes from our house. Despite scenes that looked like this:
We were still able to find several P. cinereus.
We also saw a muskrat:
January 19:
We headed out to a reservation with a large pond. The area looked like this:
We found a half dozen Eurycea bislineata larvae and not much else:
We also checked out the Duck Pond, which was completely frozen:
February: The weather was an EPIC FAIL for field herping.
Although we did put our pets under items to flip and did some indoor herping.
Cabin fever is our only excuse.
Mike threw me a herpday Birthday party and had a reptile educational program come to our house. How many people can brag that a Gila monster pooped in their living room?
Holding a Gila monster is serious business, folks.
Holding a Nile crocodile is less serious, apparently:
March 2: We headed back to the large pond. One of the vernal ponds was still frozen:
Big pond was fairly frozen, too:
We were able to find a handful of P. cinereus and a E. bislineata larva. We had purchased a small observation tank (one of those critter keepers you can get at any pet store) to safely view and photograph larvae:
March 3: We checked out a place we have never been to before in Plymouth County. Satellite images looked promising.
First thing we found: One person’s trash is another person’s epic flipping spot.
It didn’t produce anything, but by now, it just might.
If this doesn’t dry out, it will be full of toads soon:
Hopefully the toads will be followed by some Heterodon platirhinos.
We thought we had nothing but P. cinereus (30+ P. cinereus, at that) until later that night, while Mike got bored with the week’s episode of The Walking Dead and started going through the photos. He thought that this one deserved closer inspection:
Check this out, dude! Two Hemidactylium scutatum!!! Third species of the year, BOOYAH!
March 12: Ambystoma Maculatum Migration!
SAGlines was kind enough to take us to the spot he has been going to for 20 years to observe A. maculatum migrations.
We didn’t witness a full migration, but we did see 30+ males and one female, plus one Lithobates clamitans melanota!
Here’s the female on the left:
March 16: Checked out a new place in Suffolk County (less than four miles from our house!) that I was told has Ambystoma laterale (a lifer for both of us).
It has lots of nice looking vernals:
And this:
Lots of rocks and AC.
We thought the place was screaming “snakes”!!!!
I found one dead garter snake. From the looks of it, a predator got it, as from the vent down was missing. It’s sad to find a dead snake, but it means that we were correct: there are snakes here.
Within five minutes, I found a live garter:
Live, but cold. It was 32 degrees out!
March 24: Spring, finally!!!!!
We went to a State Park about a half hour from our house. We haven’t been here since the beginning of November, and decided to make it our first spring trek. We hope for at least some turtles basking, maybe flip for salamanders, but didn’t expect much else. It was about 46 degrees.
The brook coming over the dam off the pond looked like this:
It’s usually quite calm.
Within 20 minutes, I had found a smallish garter snake:
It was warm to the touch, so had obviously done some basking.
Another one was basking next to a vernal pond:
It’s quite possible there is a den nearby, as they were about a yard away from each other.
We did a bit of exploring, taking pictures of some of the vernals there:
They were all very clear, and seemed to not have had any mating activity yet.
These large rocks with lots of crevices look very promising:
This spot was dry last summer.
We found one P. cinereus on the way out. The park appears to be ready for spring, however:
We'll be unable to attend that, as we already have dinner plans that night. It's nice to see others getting excited for it, however!
We're now ready for spring to begin!
Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HEAVY
Moderator: Scott Waters
- ZantiMissKnit
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- AndyKraemer
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Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
Nice post! I think you just may have convinced me to venture out into the wilds to search out some herps! I haven't been out yet this year - Iowa has been the worst.
Happy herping!
-Andy
Happy herping!
-Andy
- Tim Borski
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Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
Andrea, that was absolutely
excellent!!! It almost makes me want to endure temps below 50.
Tim
excellent!!! It almost makes me want to endure temps below 50.
Tim
- Daniel D Dye
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Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
Good stuff, thanks!! Still to cold for this Florida boy though.
Daniel
Daniel
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Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
I agree.It almost makes me want to endure temps below 50.
This was a wonderful post. I love the habitat shots, the garters, the spotteds, and especially "flipping" for pet herps (made me laugh out loud).
Regarding the snow and ice...as I've said before, you people are some kind of tough.
- ZantiMissKnit
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Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
Tamara, if that made you laugh, you should read Mike's full blog post for our "blizzard herping expedition". We got cabin fever something fierce!Tamara D. McConnell wrote:I agree.It almost makes me want to endure temps below 50.
This was a wonderful post. I love the habitat shots, the garters, the spotteds, and especially "flipping" for pet herps (made me laugh out loud).
Regarding the snow and ice...as I've said before, you people are some kind of tough.
http://hitmewithyournaturestick.blogspo ... rping.html
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Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
LMAO!!!
The cabin fever blog is now my favorite herping post of ALL TIME. Total comedic genuis.
The cabin fever blog is now my favorite herping post of ALL TIME. Total comedic genuis.
Re: Winter 2013 & the Beginning of Spring (Northeast) PIC HE
Haha, I really like that blog post you had, that was really entertaining!
With global warming on the rise, the perpetual northeast winter should end sometime in the next few decades. In the mean time, keep up the good work!
With global warming on the rise, the perpetual northeast winter should end sometime in the next few decades. In the mean time, keep up the good work!