Travis Cossette and I did a little herping near his home in Franklin (8 mi. east of Ellsworth) on Sunday afternoon June 28. We had some nice discoveries, including a juvenile Eastern Milk and an Eastern painted turtle laying eggs.

Our most notable find was a population of pickerel frogs with two stripes down their back, instead of the usual two rows of squarish spots. Neither of us had ever seen this before. We found three morphs; 1) those with two perfect stripes down the back, 2) those with partial stripes, and 3) normally marked specimens (pictured in the first post). Enjoy!

thats amazing man.. nice finds too bad the milk had kicked it

We indeed did have a good time. Hopefully someone out there can help explain the pickerel frog situation. My trip was pretty herp filled. We found an adult Eastern Milk in my parents wood pile. I have a photo, but will have to dig it out of my camera. Also, on Monday evening, we did some road cruising up in Millinocket [did I mention that I traveled the state a bit?] and found 10-12 gray tree frogs and some spring peepers.

It was a great trip. I'll post some of my pictures later.