I've been going out recently quite a bit since the weather broke. Here in New England, the whole field herping thing kind of shuts down in the winterLast week I went out on a pretty shallow, slow moving nearby river and found/caught:
5 overwintered painted turtle hatchlings. It gets cold early so they hatch in sept/oct, hibernate in the nest, and pop out nice and tiny and awesome in the spring!
2 common musk turtle hatchlings. I can't believe I spotted these... I was just cruising in about 2 feet of clear water and happened to spot them on the bottom.
1 fresh hatched? northern water snake only about 8 inches long and a quarter inch thick. It was just chilling half submerged and leaning on a lily pad. What a nasty little snake! I prefer my big fat slow snakes to these little demons.
I also jumped kayak and mucked in a swampier area and found a bunch of little spring peepers on land near the edges. Awesome.
Also caught a couple of 2-3 lb largemouth bass... which is big for up here and laughable to you Floridians
I think the water temp was in the high 40s and the air was about 55-60, which is COLD! I typically start hunting for critters outside when the air temp hits 50 here. We have a pretty limited selection of herps, though...
Then just the other day I went out in the rain and found a literal army of painted turtles marching up a sandy hill near me to lay. Air temp was maybe 60 degrees tops. I plan to go dig up a nest or 2 this weekend. I've been captive hatching painted/snapping turtle clutches my whole life for fun. I love their tiny little faces when they're fresh hatched!
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