Snakes in the.....

Water! When we visit the locks to look for birds we often find reptiles as well. We discovered that some of the piles of dirt that we see are probably Snapping turtle nests, which would certainly fit as we see plenty of snappers.

Big ones.

We also see a plethora of Northern Water Snakes. The bank is often swarming with them in fact...some of them are apparently busy making little water snakes. 

They are bold and not much bothered by our presence. Seems they eat fish and the like and the canal is teeming with sunfish, so there is plenty on the menu. Glad I have outgrown my penchant for capturing long, skinny reptiles, as they are reputed to be quite pugnacious. 

Devil Tailed Toad Strangler

(When it's not raining, it is pretty)

Yeah. We were milking last night while the rain pounded down. Cows didn't want to go back out into it, let me tell you. Take a day of fixing and changing to keep them in and they are really much better off out, so we insisted. They protested, but went eventually out to their feed in the heifer pasture.

They weren't the only ones. The barn was full of teen aged toadlets too, little couple-inches -long fellas that came inside out of the rain. (It has rained enough to drown slugs all over the paths where we walk) We are big herptile fans here at Northview, so the toads all got escorted outside to safety too. Nothing good about the collision between half a ton of cow on the hoof and half an ounce of Bufo.

Then when we came in the house, we found that a friend had put up videos of a little sneaky snake of a tornado up around Glen somewhere and other folks were saying that they had seen two. Another video I found this morning showed it coming right at one of our friend's family's farms, but is was sucked up into the sky before it hit them.

Wow! We didn't even get any wind to mention for which I am grateful. I guess the twisters were both little devil tails, stirring things up but not doing much damage. Still, this is weird as heck. Not your grandma's upstate weather.

Alan and I ran errands and visited folks earlier yesterday and came home along the river. You would not believe how big a channel it cut during the Irene and Lee flooding. Another wow. It looks like a glacier came through at warp speed, cutting gouges and flinging rocks and mud behind it.

We have stayed away from Schoharie and Middleburg and the other really badly damaged areas, but I shudder to think what it is like down there. Poor folks.

Hey, if by chance you want to read this week's Farm Side, the paper put it up online. Usually it is only on the pay site, but here it is if you are interested. Just Look and Listen

Things are Hopping Around Here

(Excuse the grubby fingers, this toad was brought to you by a hard working man)

And there is some discussion about just what the hopping things in question are. I never knew that we had Fowler's Toads around here, but Alan insists that some of the little guys that we are finding everywhere are not plain old American toads. (I am not going to argue with him. He is the college fisheries and wildlife student and I am just his mom.) They DO seem to have the diagnotic extra lumps in their wartiness. Whatever they are, and I suspect some of each of our local common toads, they are everywhere. You have to watch where you step in the driveway, as they blend in amazingly well and are hopping all over the place out there. I know some toad whoopee was being made in the heifer watering trough all spring, because I could hear them singing all night and half the day. I suspect there may have been some happening in the garden pond too, although I never caught them in the act and they are a pretty shameless lot.

The little ones seem to have an extra measure of cute that is irresistible. I found one when I was out feeding my dog Nick that was small enough to sit comfortably on my thumbnail with room to spare. I put it in the quart cottage cheese container I take the dog food out in (after feeding the latter to Nick of course). Then I took the container in to Becky and said, "Look, I have one little kibble left."

She glanced into the container, did a double take and began to carry on in utter delight. She is as tickled as I am by tiny toads. After a careful examination baby toadlet was carried out to the edge of the pond, where he was much safer than the center of the driveway. Later Alan brought a big one in to compare to the Fowler's on the Internet.....hmmm, spots here, spots there, I think I may, I think I might....be right about this toady tonight.

You see, I have raised my daughters and son right. They love herptiles like outdoor folks should. I am delighted by all these toads and by a baby green frog Alan found on the bridge. By the myriad garter snakes we find. Red backed salamanders (which I have known as plethodon cinereus so long that I have to think to come up with their English name). Milk snakes....although we haven't seen many of those this year yet. All the hoppy, slithery, scaled and slippery amphibians and reptiles that hang around us. I guess we are lucky that most of our local critters are non-poisonous and in the case of the toad, downright neighborly. It makes enjoying them so much fun.