magickcanoe.com Blog

This is a post in a series about favourite moments of nature observation that have occurred over the past couple or so years. It’ll help to pass the time spent indoors this winter as I wait to be back out observing insects, spiders, frogs and others.

It’s been awhile since I did a Favourite Moments, so here is today’s offering. As I write this, the sun is up, there’s not a speck of snow on the ground(!!!), the grass looks quite green, and if I didn’t already know that it’s -9C (17F) out there, I’d think it was early autumn. In October, if you had asked me what I’d be doing on January 13th, I’d probably say we’d be snowshoeing through the woods and wandering across the ice of frozen ponds and marshes to check out beaver lodges. Instead, we’ll be hiking one of our favourite summer trails later today. It truly has been an unusual winter.

Anyhow, back to these salamanders! Aren’t they wonderful? All of them were photographed in the same woods on September 21, 2005. My friend, Eric Snyder, had asked me to hike to an old sand pit to photograph some pygmy mole crickets that he had found there, but with a stop to search for salamanders in the woods along the way. We set out for the sand pit, stopping to check for sallies beneath a few small logs that had been tossed in a pile during trail clearing. Eric and I have done quite a bit of stream survey work together, so I’m accustomed to his usual reserved ways even in the face of rather exciting discoveries. As he carefully turned over the first couple of logs, he almost immediately discovered a salamander — I believe it was a Blue-spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale) such as the one in the above photo (click on image for larger view). He seemed mildly excited about the find, as I believe he was expecting that we would find only Eastern Red-backed Salamanders at that site. I began shooting photos while he continued to turn small sticks and bits of wood.

I was soon interrupted from my shooting by Eric’s exclamations – not quite of the magnitude of an excited outburst – but enough so that I knew he must have made a very interesting discovery. Finishing up with my first subject, I came over to view the source of the excitement. It was a wonderful Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) – well worthy of a few hoots (see above image). This species is not seen frequently in our region, so this was a very nice sighting. The salamander was an adult of very good size, with beautiful chocolate brown skin dotted with bright yellow spots. I shot several photos before Eric carefully replaced the wood as he had found it.

We continued searching around, finding many other interesting things that day. We spotted several nice Eastern Red-backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus), such as the one in the above photo. I photographed a few Eastern Garter Snakes – a juvenile found curled up beneath a piece of wood, and an adult in the hollow of a decaying log. Eric found an adult Wood Frog and a Spring Peeper (frog), which I also photographed. As well, I found some interesting spiders. Perhaps I’ll put up photos of some of those in my next Favourite Moments post. We continued on to the sand pit and made some neat discoveries at that site as well – so, yes, I’ll definitely have to do a follow-up with more photos. Once in awhile you get a day that is so filled with sightings that it seems like elves must have been busy putting things out for you beforehand. This was definitely one of those days.

Tags: Blue Spotted Salamander, Ambystoma laterale, Spotted Salamander, Ambystoma maculatum, Eastern Red-backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus