I finally located a Northern Red Salamander in it’s original habitat. These large robust salamanders have a two stage life cycle like most amphibians. The gilled aquatic larva can be found in clear, unpolluted creeks and seeps that feed into larger bodies of water. Adults, as shown here, are also found in and around these aquatic environments often under, leaf litter, rocks or fallen logs. The adults may also seek refuge further away from the stream but return to breed in them towards late Fall and early Winter. Young adults are strikingly colorful usually red to orange with random black spots on the topside of its body. The color may darken with age. One distinguishing feature between this species and the mud salamander is that the Reds usually have a yellow iris.

Ryan and I decided to go out this evening to do some road herping. Ryan is currently a zoology major at CNU and a former Fairfax County Park Authority Volunteer at Hidden Pond Nature Center. He has been avid enthusiast of herps since he was a toddler. He lives and breathes herps and nature and is quite knowledgeable as a field herper as well as capable handler of captive herps. Tonight we linked up and headed for some sites to get our “fix” for some night herping. Below are some of he critters- some typical and some not so typical to find.
Shown below are:
American toads, Gray Tree Frogs, Red Spotted Newt (Eft Stage), Young adult Mole king snake, Ring neck snake, Worm snake, Smooth earth snake. The video shows a male gray tree frog in a vernal pool calling. If you watch the video you can hear the sounds of spring peepers and possibly the American toads calling as well. Ryan had the misfortune of being bitten by an assassin ug that night. Apparently quite painful.

Spring this year seem to arrive later than last year. Several trips to go on a decent field herping excursion had to be scrubbed due to cooler than normal temps. Over the past week the emps rose suddenly as a warm front moved in bringing with it again unseasonable high temperatures for seeral days in a row. Night time lows remained in the 40’s to 50’s and with a heavy stint of rain and a return of the sun and temps to the id 60’s made today (Saturday 4/13/13) nothing short of perfect for field herps here in Northern VA.

Mike and I spent about two hours in the field at first searching the horizon for migratory birds and raptors. We saw some kestrels and one Great Egret. Never seen a great egret this fart away from water before. Our first cover board yielded a beautifully pattern mole king snake. We took our usual photos of the snake then let it go where we found it (as we usually do. We never collect the animals).

We soon turned our attention to the old structure that once was a barn and searched around it under the debris of tin and wood that surrounded it. Mike fliiped a small rectangualr piece of tin of which produced a moderately sized northern black racer.

Moving on to one of our regualr spots that historically produced kings racers and large rat snakes but quickly discovered that the stream we cross to get tour destination was flooded from the rains the day before. Chorus frogs coul be heard in the wetlands adjacent to the stream. Normally we would just trek right across but given we both only had limited tme and had previously scheduled engagements elsewhere and no time to change we opte not to.

Mike however suggested anotehr spot he found on his own a few weeks earlier when he was birding. It was the remains of an old house with several outbuildings incldung a a large barn. All of which were in a sever state of deteroiration. Perfect for our purposes though and so we proceeeded to survey the area. We decided t ocut through some woods while enroute to the new site flipping some logs. In the wooded area was a sll debris pile where we found an eastern worm snake under some cover Mike laid down the last time he passed through.

Leaving that spot we came upon a small tributary that fed into the creek we could not cross earlier. On the bank Mike found a decent Northern brown snake.

Leaving he woods we hopped onto a road bed borederd by cedars and some mixed hardwoods and pines. Mike said that he had seen a great horned owl at this location while birding a few weeks earleir. No sooner had he said this the owl appeared in flght right directly in fron of us.

WE finally came upon the property that had the old house and outbuildings. Almost immediately Mike stumbled upon a large racer on the edge of one of the buildings next to some plywood. I quickly answered with another large racer just a few feet away. After admiring the our catch we took some pics then released the animals back where they were found. Going into one of the buildings I found some wood and other debris on the floor and started flipping. Found one juvenile five lined skink still in hibernation as it never moved from its resting position.

I took a few pics then carefully and gently layed the cover back over it as to minimize any disturbance.

We continued to work around the property hearing all sorts of movement in the old buildings but didn’t investigate too much given we were short on time. On our way out Mike decided to flip a metal lid to a 50 gallon drum. Under it were a pair of mole kings!! Finding multiple snakes under the same cover wasn’t new but finding more than one king was a first for us.

Looking forward to another great herping day in the very near future

For the past two nights Me and several families from the Town of Clifton visited a few of the seasonal pools located on the outer boarders of the Town. Temps were ranged from mid to high 40’s into the 50’s. On the first night we visited the pool along Neuman road. Arriving just before dark there were only a few wood frogs and a scant sound of a peeper or two. As night time approached the pool came alive with the clucking sounds of numerous male wood frogs looking for mates.

Second night we turned our attention the the pools in 8 acre park. There we found a nice section of grass choked pools full of very vocal peepers totoally oblivious of our presence. We also observed two spotted salamanders and numerous wood frogs.

Both pools show prior evidence of activity suggestive of both wood frogs and spotted salamanders. Mostly Wood frog egg masses with fewer areas of spotted sal eggs. I am prediciting that the spots will be in full swing on the next nightime rain event.

All told the families seem to have a great time. Species recorded for these two trips: Green frog (Lithobates clamitans) Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvatica) Spring Peeper (Psuedacris crucifer) and Spotted Salamander ( Ambystoma maculatum)