u/Flickorice

some species I’ve seen recently this fall (and a bit of summer’s end) I’m seeing a lot more than I expected, though the reduced vegetation makes traversing the woods easier

A lot of young garters are basking/hiding in the rocky slopes, I also set out some boards for them

sucks that I didn’t see a milksnake (yet🤞🏽) this year but I haven’t been out as much as I could’ve

hopefully snow clears faster next year, excited to see the vernal pools though

(Eastern MA)

hm

4 snapping turtle babies got into a weird watery hole thing (pretty close to the dead trapped ringneck from a bit ago and some nets that also trapped some reptiles) not sure exactly how they got in but I used a long stick to get them out (the big branch was also put there by me back in spring to help a bullfrog escape)

Anyway they were deposited in a little waterfall/stream by the muddy edge of the reservoir and hopefully are all good now

Also bonus garter snakes (last one was just sitting in the path’s center for some reason) and frogs (a bunch were sitting in a weird orange puddle) from recently

I swear stuff keeps getting stuck in this one part of my local forest/park

Today I found 4 baby snapping turtles (I hope that was all of them) in a weird pit filled with water, not sure what it’s for but I fished them all out with a stick and brought them to a little stream thing

There was a heron hunting somewhat nearby but I think they hid well enough

Also any ideas on how they all would’ve gotten in here? Maybe they thought it was a pond or something idk

sort of depressing but there’s this weird hole thing, not really sure what it actually is, near a local reservoir, usually I check it unseriously since there’s always nothing there other than spiders and crickets but this time there was a dead ringneck, sorta cool I guess.

Also found a few garters under rocks and old cloth, including a tiny baby in blue

It was really bad timing and a kinda rushed walk to glad I found anything

12 Eastern garters in Eastern Massachusetts, there might be like no diversity but at least there are snakes I guess.

This is by far the most of these guys I’ve see in a day, there were also like 8 more but they were speedy and got away.

Hopefully I see more Nerodia later or another milk/ringneck if I get real lucky

a bit small and sitting over burrow, that’s about it

oh there were also some black widows but I couldn’t get good photos

Yesterday I caught this pretty big and very pretty common watersnake, and she (I think) had some kind of wound on her lower back, it looks almost like a slice was made down her side or something. She seems recovered though since it closed up and I found her swimming normally

kinda just sharing but also what might’ve caused the injury? It looks like it would’ve been pretty bad when fresh

hopefully I see more of these guys out with the warming weather and frogs

(2 pics per snake)

found these two snakes stuck in anti-erosion netting at the reservation near my house, no clue why they even put it up. Pretty sure they are both garters but they are basically mummified so just checking

also a huge snapping turtle got its claws caught in the stuff, I was able to free it though