Friday Night in the Swamp. 3-29-2019

It was going to be warm and not particularly rainy but we salamander fans are getting itchy so we all made plans to meet up at 8:30 PM at our favorite haunted swamp to see if anyone was out and about. In addition to the two of us, Teá and Dan were there as well as 5 other friends. That's a lot of eyes but also a lot of feet tromping along. Luckily, everyone gets it and were very careful.

Much to our mutual delight, we could hear Peepers and Wood Frogs almost as soon as we hit the trail. At our first spot, we saw one of our targets, the Spotted Salamander. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a shot.

See?

A Spring Peeper that was there was much easier to shoot, especially since I was able to reach in and capture it for a better opportunity.

Hey, nobody ever said I play fair.

This Spotted Salamander was underwater but was in a better position to get a photo of. Check out those bulges.

At the next vernal, the Peeper calls were deafening but we couldn't see them. But how cool is it that these three Redbacks were not only up, but in the water and lounging around the edge of the pool!

We all had to admit that we'd never seen that before.

Finally, we saw our First of Year Wood Frog. It was hopping up on the path.

After breaking the Wood Frog seal, we saw plenty of them.

Another species we like to look for at this spot is the elusive Four-toed Salamander. They're usually pretty tough to see on the move because they're very small. This FOY wasn't small at all (for a Four-toed...)

Again, the seal was broken and our next three sightings were more adult Four-toed Salamanders.

A bright Redback broke the scutatum streak.

We all started to get a bit nervous about so many feet stepping around such little animals, careful though we were, so we turned back. We were a bit disappointed because we'd not seen a Blue-spotted Salamander, one of the most beautiful of our local species. But if they're not out, you can't... wait... is that?

Our first Bluey on the year! And like before, the seal had been broken. Another!

And one last one who posed beautifully.

While we were getting ready to move on from this last one, a small Peeper jumped into the path.

We checked on the some of the vernals again on the way back. After all, things seemed to be timing themselves better by now. I got this cowflop of a Peeper.

I finally got a shot of a pair of Woodies in amplexus.

Somewhere around here, Andrea and Teá started talking about the ever changing genus names and how everything should just be called Bufo and then they said Bufo sapien, a term I'm still laughing about.

Less funny is the look on this poor female Wood Frog's face as she bulges with eggs.

Another pretty Redback. They were moving all over this trail by now, as were slugs.

Another egg-bloated Woody gal.

We'd missed one other vernal spot on the way back to the parking lot so we all made a quick U-turn to take a last peek into a pool. The timing was very good because an Eastern Newt was seen in the water's edge.

Not only our 7th species on the night but a new one for us at this spot.

We didn't get home until after midnight but we'd had an excellent time with friends and the beauty of the swamp. Hanging with like-minded Bufo sapiens is rewarding.