The real beauties of nature

Whisper

Instead of shouting

~Melissa Dowland

For those of you not on social media (I posted some of this today on FB)…

I cleaned out (removed excessive filamentous algae and some leaves) our two small wildlife pools last Friday in anticipation of the predicted rain, thinking it might be the first salamander run of the year.We went to bed early and the rains came (I regret not staying up a little later to see the salamanders on the move). Saturday morning, the bottoms of the pools were covered in spermatophores (it looks like little white blobs resembling bird poop all over the bottom of the pond). We were away the weekend (to Pungo, so I need to do another post on that spectacle), and late Sunday, the first eggs were laid. I checked Monday night, more egg laying. After a campfire Tuesday, I checked again and was pleasantly surprised to see yet more egg laying in progress. Here is a beautiful spotted salamander female from Tuesday night.

-Spotted Salamander laying eggs (iPhone pic). Another egg mass is just to the right of her head. I place a few dead branches in each pool each year about this time of year as the females prefer to grasp a twig or some other vegetation and attach the egg masses to them. (click photo to enlarge)

Next week looks like a rainy week so I am hoping to get out and see more salamanders moving into these pools. But, I really don’t know how all these larvae will find enough to eat. There are already a lot of egg masses. Good luck little guys!