Birding and the first herps near Guelph

Spring is here. Crocuses are blooming and being pollinated. Commas and mourning cloaks have been seen flying around.

Since Guelph has been smokin' hot lately... It was a great excuse to spend an afternoon birding and looking for herps.  My friends and I went out to Mountsberg Lake and Puslinch:  killdeer, canvas back, red head, eurasian wigeon, ringneck ducks, pied billed grebe, northern pintail, scaup, american coot, godwall, bufflehead, common and hooded mergansers, song sparrow and red winged black bird.

Killdeer

American coots

Ring necked ducks

Common merganser flying

Buffleheads landing

Along the road there were many song sparrows, red tailed hawks, a bald eagle, rough legged hawk and two eastern meadowlarks that we had the pleasure of hearing sing.

Eastern Meadowlark

Eastern meadowlark showing the bright yellow

On our way towards a nearby herping site we saw about eight painted turtles in a pond.

Painted turtles basking in the spring warmth

As we started flipping rocks and logs and walking through forests looking for snakes I am pleasantly surprised by the number of herps we were finding.  A few red backed salamanders and a blue spotted salamader were my first amphibians for the year as we heard spring peepers calling from ponds nearby.

Redbacked salamader

Blue spotted salamander

Chris found our first ribbon snake and then we continued to find 14 ribbon snakes and 9 garter snakes. Many of the garter snakes were paired off in their acts of mating.

Ribbon snake

Chris and the first snake of the year

There weren't to many wildflowers blooming but you could smell skunk cabbage and some green life had survived under the snow.

Skunk cabbage

Wintergreen is one of my favorite plants to find in the wild since it makes a nice treat if spending hours in the field. It's very common and the leaves taste kinda like bubblegum to me. I don't know about  eating the berries. Haven't ever tried it. They don't look to appealing.

Wintergreen

We didn't have to walk far to hit the treasure trove our of herping but we did walk farther back into the forest.

Josh and Chris on the hunt

 One of my favorite finds of the day was when Josh found a baby ribbon snake.

Josh with the baby ribbon snake

Another adult ribbon snake