Salamander Road Trip. 7-3-2018

Initially, we had been planning a Western Massachusetts overnight trip, one where we would hit four spots in two days. But our vacation had already become tightly packed and it was still only Tuesday morning! We slept in a bit and finally decided to just drive out to one spot, the furthest out, and visit a stream in the Berkshires.  Our target? Spring Salamanders.

It's about a 3 hour drive to our destination. We cranked the AC and some music (the heatwave was still very much on) and took the Turnpike way out. Nearing our mountain destination, we pulled over to a store to look out back for critters. We've found Red-bellied Snakes, American Toads and Efts out there before. Even though it was cooler up in the mountains, it was still well into the 80s. That didn't stop this Eft from being flippable.


Another few miles up the road, and up some twisty-turny mountain side-roads and we were there. We got right to work, looking through the woods on the way to the river. Up first, a lovely Redback that we posed with some gorgeous wildflowers.

This area is very good for finding erythristic Redbacks, that is, all-red specimens. Not this time, unfortunately. But since we've been in a heatwave and woodland salamanders have pretty much disappeared back home, we were thrilled to see our Plethodon Pals here in the mountains.


On the way to nirvana (not the band).


Ah, the cold mountain water. We pulled up rocks and just watched the life under the surface of the water. Tadpoles (most likely American Toads), Black-nosed Dace, tiny Sculpins and salamander larvae were present, all in a 3 foot radius.


We scooped up some Two-lined Salamander larvae and some toadpoles.


A Dace, a Sculpin and a toadpole.


We started to move upstream, flipping small rocks along the edges. We got our first adult Two-lined Salamander before too long.


Andrea flipped a large Dusky in the water that we never got a good shot of.


We were both in the water. (Make fun of Crocs all you want... they're excellent in rocky streams.) We felt eyes upon us from the river's edge.

We didn't expect to see any snakes this day but this stunning, reddish Garter was searching the river as well, looking for lunch.


A couple more pretty Two-lines...



Even though it was cooler than back home, it was still about 85° so we enjoyed our time in the river.



I was up ahead of Andrea when I hit the Dookie sweet spot... I flipped a couple of big beauties.



I started working the edges, the incline from the river up to the grass. I was finding speedy Redbacks (not erythristic) who avoided my camera with ease. Then Andrea called from about 50 feet upstream... "SPRING"! I raced through the cold water to reach her and she lifted a rock to reveal...

Target achieved.


Another golden Two-line.


We poked around in the river for another half hour or so, then took it to the woods to get back to the main section of the river. The woods were good to us with a few Redbacks.


I was in the water again, walking toward a (manmade) waterfall, when I saw a couple of Green Frogs enjoying the day.


It's good to get my camera on a few Greens. It seems I've been hearing them but not seeing them all year.

Andrea had stayed back at the part of the river where we'd first stepped in. I was at the base of the fall. I couldn't resist and stripped to my unders and dunked myself into the river. It was heavenly. (Needless to say, this area is pretty private, with only a few cars going by well above us the whole time we were there.) I went back to join Andrea, who was immersed in her own little underwater world. I joined her, watching small fish, tadpoles and caddisfly larvae.


That is heaven on Earth, mister.

We drove home, happy and satisfied (and listening to Queen Live from 1974... back when they were still great). Did we really just drive 3 hours each way to see salamanders? Yes, and so much more. As I write this the day before returning to work, I can honestly say that this few hours in the river was the most perfect time we had all week.