The First Movers of Spring

Conditions aligned last night for some animals to move, and I planned to be out to see it happen. It wasn't fish I was after, though. It was after salamanders. It rained on and off the night before and throughout the morning. It was also very nearly 60 degrees. In the evening, some small thunderstorm cells were born in an unstable atmosphere in eastern Pennsylvania. Those storm cells grew and organized into a well defined line with embedded severe warned cells. Wind damage was reported throughout far southwester PA, northern NJ, and southern NY, and hail was reported in western CT. When the storms reached central CT they were no longer severe, but still firing a lot of lightning that flashed through the gaps in the low clouds.

The heavy rain rapid drop in pressure, and warmth signaled to many organisms that it was time to move. Though the vernal pools and ponds were all still iced over in the area, I suspected the spotted salamanders would still want to come up for the first breath of fresh air after months of living dormant in the dirt. 

I walked over snow and ice for far longer than I expected and it mad my confidence plummet. It had been packed down by plenty of walkers and was in a very shaded area, so I had expected some snow in those kinds of spots, but it's hard to feel like you're in the right area to find amphibians with snow underfoot. Before I got to the really good area though, the night was made when I fulfilled a goal I've had for three years: photograph a Scolopax minor at close range. I got lucky and nearly stepped on an adorable little American woodcock, and it didn't fly very far off! 

 I continued on, now very pleased with how the night had started. Snow cover was sparse, and in the first promising stretch of trail without it, I saw something hop. Wood frog! Lithobates sylvaticus is very adept at surviving cold temperatures, and more than once I have seen them making there calls from atop sheets of ice in partially thawed vernal pools, so this was an unsurprising find, and one of many I would see on this night. 

Not ten feet further, there it was. The species I had come for. Ambystoma maculatum. The reclusive spotted salamander. I ended up finder three in a little over a mile, all between 7 and 8 inches. Beautiful, robust, spectacular salamanders. I found about a dozen more wood frogs and two spring peepers. I also found three more woodcocks, a rabbit, and a skunk. 

For about the next four weeks on every warm rainy night, amphibians of all sorts, and things that like to eat them, will be out and about and on the roads. Be careful and vigilant while driving, and if at all possible, just avoid driving on the rainy nights completely. These species are all vital to the ecosystem. Like it or not, they are more important than your human problems. They can live without us but we can't live without them. So please brake for amphibians! 

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