Six New Herp Species for 2017 and a Red Fox Encounter (Part 1/2)

April 21st to 23rd was another weekend full of driving and herping.

A lot of the weekends target species were found, but also many were missed.

The weekend started off with a 3 hour car ride to Taylor's house again near Lindsay, Ontario. After crashing the night there we set off for a day of herping in the Gravenhurst area. 

It was a cool morning but we thought we might be able to get some snakes or skinks underneath rocks or basking on top of them trying to soak up some heat. After flipping countless rocks and finding more cockroaches than I had ever seen before I finally flipped our first herp, and it was a new species for the year for both of us! This was a female Five-lined Skink that was under a thin rock.


Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area

Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area

Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area

Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area
After finding the female skink I spotted another male that got away in a rock crevice in the ground. Although great finding the skinks we were a little disappointed that they were the only herps we had seen so far.

But to our luck, we came across a wonderfl surprise right beside the trail. An adult male Blanding's Turtle! We somehow almost missed this guy since we weren't really looking for herps on the way back to the car but thankfully Taylor caught him in the corner of his eye.

I had never been resented with an opportunity like this to photograph a Blanding's Turtle in situ so I took advantage of it while I could.

Blanding's Turtle - Gravenhurst Area
Blanding's Turtle - Gravenhurst Area

Blanding's Turtle - Gravenhurst Area
After some in situ shots we moved the turtle to the water body which he was moving towards so that any passerby's on bicycle or walking would not hit, poach, or disturb the reptile further. Once put in the water we grabbed a few more quick pictures and were on our way.

Blanding's Turtle - Gravenhurst Area

Blanding's Turtle - Gravenhurst Area
On our way out we also saw many Painted Turtles but did not stop to photograph them as we were on a time restriction.

We left and went to another spot where we would search for Spotted Turtles. Unfortunately we came up empty handed in that regard and only managed to find some Green Frogs and another Five-lined Skink.

Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area

With that being the conclusion of our herping day we took off back to taylor's house. Along the way we saw a few more Blanding's Turtles basking on logs in wetlands and we came across a freshly hit Northern Watersnake. This snake would have been a first of year for Taylor and I but we decided not to count it considering it's condition.

And if the day wasn't eventful enough we also had a surprise encounter with a Red Fox on the drive home. Yes it is not a herp species but they are a beautiful species and it was too rare an encounter to not share on the blog as part of my day.

This was a female Red Fox that was sitting on the edge of someones yard probably looking for scrap food.

Red Fox
 
Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

Red Fox

This day had it's ups and downs but overall all it was a fantastic day! and the weekend had just begun, we were heading out to Leeds and Grenville County the next morning.

Part 2 will include 4 new herp Species for the year so make sure you watch for the release of the next post!

- Ryan

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