Salamander Search Yields Only Calls from Great Horned Owl and Sheriff's Office

Northern dusky salamander found under shale rock in shale seepage area near Little Jelloway Creek, near Apple Valley, on August 1, 2013.  (Photo by Don Comis)

April is here, the buds are turning green on my neighbor's shrub, the daytime temperatures are pretty warm--but still it feels like March going out like a lion.  As the winds picked up and the temperatures fell around 6 tonight, it felt really cold.


This gives me an excuse to skip a night search for the salamander migration tonight.


I spent about two and a half hours last night listening for woodcocks the first half hour and then sitting on a bench by the Kokosing River looking for migrating salamanders for an hour.  Nothing, but I did get to hear a call I think came from a Great Horned owl.


My other surprise was getting a call from the sheriff's office after a deputy saw my car late at night in an isolated parking lot.  He used my license plate to call my wife and check to see I was ok.  She gave him my cell phone number and I returned his call and explained what I was doing, or tried to.  My wife and I both thanked the sheriff's office for checking on me.


It's another example of what can happen to zealous naturalists.  I have an even better story about that I'll tell someday!


That call and the dense fog on the way home late last night also makes me glad that conditions don't seem right for salamanders tonight. 

Hope for Salamander Migration Soon

One of the first salamanders I've captured and learned to photograph as they "escape" the container I place them in.  I photographed this northern red on July 28, 2013, along Little Jelloway Creek near Apple Valley.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Probably the first frog I've photographed successfully.  This northern leopard frog was quite a ham, once I learned I couldn't use the salamander release trick to photograph him or her.  He would just jump out of sight when the container was opened.  So I just followed him along the banks of the Kokosing River in Millwood, Ohio, until he "froze",  hoping I wouldn't see him.  (Photographed on August 7, 2013 by Don Comis)

Jim McCormac's blog last night gave me hope that I still have a shot at seeing the mass migration of salamanders to vernal pools where they mate and lay eggs.  He confirms that this tough winter has delayed the mass migration, while individual salamanders and frogs have made the trip.

But the mass migration triggered by the combination of night, rain, and warm temperatures hasn't happened yet.  He believes it will happen in a week or two.  Right now, I'm guessing Thursday or Friday, based on weather forecasts.

In taking a back route the other day to a pond near my house to photograph a flock of redhead ducks, canvasbacks, and scaups, I found a mini-pond near wet woodland near the big pond.  This mini-pond is much bigger than the vernal pool I'm looking at in Gambier, Ohio.  Last year, I dismissed it when it looked only like a drainage gully.  The major snows of this winter must have swelled this vernal pool, if that's what it is.

I can confirm it by asking questions of the neighbors of the pool or by checking for eggs or waiting to see if it dries up in late summer as vernal pools do.   If it turns out to be one, it would be the first vernal pool I found on m own.  And it will be in my neighborhood, which I wished for.

This was the best I could do as I hid from this skittish flock of redheads, canvasbacks, and scaups on a recent evening.  The possible vernal pool in my neighborhood is near this full-sized pond.  (Photo by Don Comis)