Notes About Nature

03 February 2013

Jenna and I got back to Columbia this morning. It sure has been cold the past few days. When I woke up on Friday morning, it was 8 degrees. But today the temperature got into the upper 30s and when in the sun it didn't feel too bad. Jenna and I decided to go to on a walk in a local park today. The bird activity was very lackluster. We had 8 species in over 2 hours and it was all common things. We were walking around a pond and looking through the ice when Jenna saw something move. Under the 2 inches of ice was a Painted Turtle. It was pretty small with a carapace length of about 6 inches. Right next to it was a Smallmouth Salamander! I kicked through the ice a few inches to the side. The turtle instantly swam to the deep, but I was able to reach under the ice and grab the salamander. We took some pictures of it and put it back on the edge of the pond. It immediately crawled to the hole I had knocked in the ice, went into the water, and swam to the bottom. Jenna also spotted an Eastern Newt under the ice, but it swam before we could even make an attempt to grab it. I really wonder how the salamander and especially the turtle are being active under the ice with not being able to come up for air and surviving. Here is a picture of the Smallmouth Salamander (A. texanum).