More Common Garter Snakes at Ames Nowell

I really need to start waking up earlier to get outside around 6-7, instead of not getting around to going out until 1. At least the snakes bailed me out today during my brief afternoon excursion to Ames Nowell State Park. I encountered 4 Common Garter Snakes today, including a young snake that was waiting in ambush near the leaf litter pathways of 2 Least Shrews, or what I'm fairly certain were Least Shrews due to their 1" size, short tails, and faint squeaks. To fully appreciate these pictures, click to enlarge and then zoom in, as they are uncropped.

The young Common Garter Snake stalking the Least Shrews

The second Common Garter Snake of the day...

...in the exact same spot as the one I saw last week.

I'll have to try to compare the markings to see if it's the same individual

3rd Common Garter Snake, found next to a large boulder...

...that I briefly pestered for a few good pictures

And finally a 4th Common Garter Snake escaping my gaze over a log

I did manage to see my first Pine Warblers of the year, after getting a mild case of "Warbler Neck", and got a very, very brief look at a Spring Azure butterfly, which was not cooperative when it comes to taking pictures. In the nest box area at the north end of the pond, there were still no Tree Swallows, though I did count 15 Painted Turtles basking there.
I can't wait for butterfly season to get fully underway and for dragonfly season to start...

UPDATE: I am now convinced that the shrews that I saw were not Least Shrews, as their range apparently does not quite reach this area of Massachusetts. As a result, I don't know what species of shrew they were, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say Northern Short-tailed Shrews, but if that's the case then they must have been young. Guess I blew the ID on that one, but in my defense, the information on mammals, especially small mammals, isn't as comprehensive as the information available on say birds. Oh well, better luck next time.

Great Pond & Great Blue Hill

This past Friday I went to Great Pond in Randolph (also called the Braintree Reservoir I think) for a few hours, and then made my way north to the Blue Hills, taking the red path to the top of Great Blue Hill from the Trailside Museum. At Great Pond, I saw the usual assortment of ducks: Canada Geese, Mallards, Bufflehead, Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, Greater Scaup (plus unindentified scaup), in addition to my first Northern Flicker of the year, and a female Wild Turkey.

Eastern Elliptio shell on the shore of Great Pond

I think the one on the right might have an injured neck

The Blue Hills were relatively quiet, although I did see 3 Golden-Crowned Kinglets (FoY) and a Red-Breasted Nuthatch (also FoY), so I decided to appreciate the great views of the surrounding areas that Great Blue Hill offered. I also saw my first American Red Squirrel of the year, who I spooked twice in the same spot, which must've been his home.

A very jagged piece of bedrock about halfway up the path

View of Boston from the tower on Great Blue Hill

View of Boston Harbor from the tower

I believe that mountain on the left is Wachusett Mountain

A big rock that I sat on looking out to the west

Pine cone of a Pitch Pine, which is common on the summit

A new pine cone of Pitch Pine

The Trailside Museum was buzzing with activity when I made my way down. White-Breasted Nuthatches, Black-Capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, American Goldfinches, Common Grackles, Rock Pigeons and House Sparrows were all very noisily hanging around the feeders, which were stocked with seed. The goldfinches were nearly completely yellow in breeding plumage, with just a few specks of brown left. Two pairs of House Sparrows were already starting to nest in the nest boxes next to the feeders, with the females bringing nesting material while the males sat in the box.

I can't wait until May, when Great Blue Hill while have Eastern Towhees and Gray Catbirds out the wazzoo, with Tree Swallows, Baltimore Orioles, Indigo Buntings, Prairie Warblers, and Brown Thrashers at the summit, plus dragonflies and butterflies that I'll hopefully be able to get some good pictures of.

Ames Nowell in April: Garter Snake Yes, Tree Swallows No

Hoping to see some Tree Swallows for the first time this year, I headed out to Ames Nowell State Park this past Saturday. Tree Swallows and Tyrant Flycatchers were the main birds I was hoping to see. I'm also now starting to be on the lookup for the early butterflies around here, especially the various elfin species. So I trekked over to the northern area of the pond where 8 Wood Duck nest boxes were set up 2 autumns ago. I didn't see any ducks use the nest boxes last year, however, a pair of Tree Swallows nested in one last year, and I figured this would be a good place to see my first Tree Swallows of the year. On the way to the nest box area, I stumbled across a Common Garter Snake right next to the pond. Because he was pinned against the pond with no where to retreat to, I was able to get a few decent pictures of him/her:

Close up of Common Garter Snake, Click picture for a bigger version

When I got to the nest box area, there were no Tree Swallows in sight, however there were 3 Bufflehead, 2 males 1 female, as well as a pair of Mute Swans. This was the first time I've seen Bufflehead at Ames Nowell in 2 years of birdwatching there. Surprisingly, there were also no Red-Winged Blackbirds calling in the marshes near the nest boxes yet.

Hoping to see a butterfly or Tyrant Flycatcher before the day was out (I slept in far later than I would have liked and so only went out around 1 pm), I journeyed back around to the western side of the pond, where unfortunately I did not see much. I'll have to check back in a week or two...

Dragonflies of 2010 Recap

Last year around June I started bringing my Kodak Easyshare camera with me when I was going birdwatching. I took a few good pictures of some butterflies, which I already posted about, as well as dragonflies and damselflies. Here's a recap of the dragonflies and damselflies that I managed to get decent pictures of. Hopefully I'll get much better pictures this upcoming year.

Harlequin Darner

Fragile Forktail

Eastern Pondhawk Female

Slaty Skimmer Male

Blue Dasher Female

Banded Pennant

Slaty Skimmer Female

Lancet Clubtail Female

Skimming Bluet

Violet Dancer, subspecies violacea of the Variable Dancer Argia fumipennis

Eastern Amberwing

Widow Skimmer Male

Sweetflag Spreadwing

Common Green Darner Female

Common Green Darner Female

Another Skimming Bluet from much later in the year

This is a terrible picture but it's the only one I snapped before it flew away, and a Martha's Pennant is noteworthy enough to include a bad picture of

And finally, an unidentified spreadwing damselfly

Stay tuned for a few more recaps of the pictures I took in 2010, then I'll be all caught up in time for spring.