Howdy Doody every body,
Hows things? Well enough of that formal stuff, I have a presentation for a school tomorrow and wanted to get some local stuff. Some of you may know i am involved with the Connecticut Amphibian Monitoring Project here in good 'ol CT. There are sites in the state which i am a coordinator for one of them and one of the jobs is to go and see what is in the various wetlands.

So i went for a walk at 8:30 tonight to a DEEP kettle pot vernal pool, yes at night, i waded in (which i haven't been brave enough to wade in during the day yet). It is a cool place with the peepers callin and all. So i go in to the "marsh" which had floating islands and fallen underwater trees. I found some peepers, a monster pickerel, a few spotted salamander egg masses, one of the most gorgeous spotted salamanders i have ever seen! But in the middle of looking for peepers i heard a good sized "kur-plunk" on the other side of a small island, like something jumping into the water. Since i was nearly waist deep i panicked for a second thinking what could have made that noise? muskrat? duck? big frog? I finally got the nerve up and kept searching for peepers, then i saw it! I froze, focused my head lamp and grabbed it! it was a painted turtle!!! I was so excited. The kids are gonna love him! Hope everyone else is having a great SPRING!!!!!

~mike