first ever successful herping excursion!

[Hummingbird2]

well it looks like i beat biochic here! :P we went to the park last night and the night before just to walk (it's been SO nice this week) and, of course, we have to turn over all the logs and stuff along the trail. well the day before yesterday sucked. all we found was a bunch of earthworms. but last night it was a tad warmer and we were there a few minutes earlier and we found two salamanders!!!!! we turned over a log and there was a spotted salamander just sitting there! he was so cold but so adorable! i picked him really carefully and held him for a couple minutes and then angie (biochic) held him for a minute. by this time the heat from our hands had warmed him up a bit and he started trying to walk off our hands so we put him back in his little mud hole he had dug and covered him up! he was about 5" long including tail! so we kept walking and a little while later there was ANOTHER spotted salamander under *another* log! this one was really tiny, though - maybe 2 1/2" long including tail. just adorable. we held him for a minute, too, and then put him back. we could have kicked ourselves for not bringing a camera. maybe we'll go again this weekend and take a camera! very cool, though! this was the first time i have ever actually found something other than earthworms and squirrels! totally awesome experience!

here's a pic of the species we found:



that looks *just* like the ones we caught except the spots on the heads of the ones we found were a bit more orange.

[haroldo359]

cool... kerri and i are gonna try to get out into the woods tomorrow. maybe we'll run across some snakes. anyway, thanks for telling about your herping trip. salamanders are always fun to find.

[Hummingbird2]

awesome! if you catch any, take pics!!!! i wanna see!

[kerri4776]

lol... i will. i will let kerri run the camera while i flip logs. hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. (i say it is for egg hunting for haley... but it is really cause i wanna look for snakes). here is a pic of a frog i took last time out. i don't know much about frogs. what is it? i assume it is a common one, 'cause they were jumping everywhere.

[haroldo359]

oops again. that was me. haven't done that in a couple of days, guess i was due.

[John_White]

Subadult spotted salamanders are often found in slightly dryer conditions than the adults. Within these slightly dryer conditions where you find subadult spotted salamanders you'll should also find marbled salamanders.

Good luck!

[haroldo359]

no info on the frog John?

[Hummingbird2]

oh what a cute froggy! i wish we had seen some like that! the ones we saw looked an aweful lot
like that one, but i think they were greener. like i said we couldn't see them so well, though.

and thanks for the info, john! it totally makes sense, too. we kept looking in the wettest places
and didn't find anything so on the way back on the trail we looked on the opposite side where it
was drier and we found our babies! they were both in the mud under logs, but the mud wasn't
mushy at all. we thought it was kind of dry for the little guys. how big do spotteds get? do you
think the ~5" one was full grown? obviously the ~2 1/2" one was jus' a youngin'. :P

[John_White]

The frog looks somewhat like a cricket frog based on the long legs and somewhat warty skin, but I'm not 100% sure.

Adult spotted salamanders range in size from about 5-7 inches. The record size is 9.75 inches.

[haroldo359]

thanks john!

[Hummingbird2]

yay john!!!

cynthia - in awe of john's never-ending knowledge