Notes About Nature

07 February 2013

We made plans last night to go out herping again tonight, so we stopped by to see if our friends Andy and Quentin wanted to join. It rained about two tenth of an inch today, but it was pretty well done by noon. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed out to meet Quentin and Andy. We got to our first stop of the night with high hopes of some diversity, even though the temperatures were quickly falling through the 40s. We searched around a couple of small ponds before Andy finally found a Smallmouth Salamander under a log in the water-. Here's a picture of Andy holding his catch.

While Andy was standing holding the salamander for me, he started sinking in the soft mud. I tried to provide stability while he tried to pull himself out of the mud, but it didn't work. Next I tried providing stability while Quentin pulled on the top of his boots, but that didn't work either. Soon, both of his boots were totally submerged. Here is a picture Jenna took of Quentin and I trying to help Andy get out.

Since the Smallmouth Salamander was the only thing found, we decided to move to a new area. On the walk to the water, we spotted a spike buck laying beside the trail. Quentin took of walking toward it stating that, "Andy caught a salamander but he was going to catch a deer." I'm not so sure he couldn't have. He was closing in on 12 yards when Jenna yelled at him to leave it be. The deer was still laying there watching as we left.

It didn't take long to find 21 adult Central Newts, a couple more Smallmouth Salamanders, and some Grassland Crayfish. I love finding these animals, but I'm ready for it to warm up a little so we can find some different species. But I guess tonight wasn't too bad since the temperature had fallen into the mid 30s by that point. Here are some pictures of the critters we saw tonight.