Hairy woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

I haven't been out herping for a few days because school is getting busy in it's final weeks but here is a male  hairy woodpecker I saw on campus today. Notice he is banded as well. I wonder where he is from.

A new lifer!

Although it had cooled down a bit and was somewhat overcast a friend Chris and I headed out to Rockwood Conservation Area to look for snakes. Our first few minutes of searching were unsuccessful, but be continued despite. Eventually under a large wooden board we found two brown snakes and a small garter. 

Adult (F?) Dekay's brown snake

 Despite the colder weather these snakes were a bit more active than expected and getting pictures took a few minutes.

Escaping

This glimmer of hope lead us to find three more brown snakes. Two of these were about the length of my finger and half the width of a pencil.

Tiny Dekay's brown snake

 Pussy willows were out and flowering.

Pussy willow flower

 Many centipedes and millipedes were found under logs, rocks and boards

Centipede

Further down the trail we flipped a rock and found a small red-backed salamander

Red-backed salamander

 After our adventures at Rockwood Conservation Area we headed to our spot near Guelph to meet up with some other friends and look for salamanders. There were a lot of ground beetles crawling around. This one in particular was very large and coo. It was not bothered much by being handled and didn't bite at all.

Carabus serratus

Searching one of the shallow vernal pools we didn't find any four-toed salamanders this time. The main pool where we always find things did have six species around it: green frog, spring peeper, blue spotted, spotted, jeffersons and eastern newt.

We found our first blue spotted salamander out of the water along the path in leaf litter.

Blue-spotted salamander

 This male spotted salamander was found near the back of the pool with some other spotted. He had so many bright spots. More than I have usually seen on one of these guys.

Spotted salamander

 This eastern newt eft was seen eating spotted salamander eggs in the pool. I actually waded out in bare feet to get a picture of this happening. This is about the best my camera could get but it was a really cool thing to watch although a bit sad.

Newt getting its fill of  spotted salamander egg masses

 Spotted salamanders lay eggs in large fist sized clumps whereas blue spotted salamander lay eggs in smaller clumps of about 20. We saw a lot of both spotted and blue spotted eggs in the vernal pools already so we might have missed the large portion of migration.

Spotted salamander egg masses

 And then.... as Josh, Dav and I are knee deep in muck.... Chris found the treasure of the night. This Jefferson's salamander was on land nearby the pool. The long limbs and grey colour are indication of a pure Jefferson's salamander however hybrids of blue spotted and Jefferson's are more common than the pure species. This species is endangered in Canada and is a new lifer for me. I have never been able to confirm seeing one but the slatey grey spots on this guy are very noticeably different than the bluish grey of the blue spotted above.

As a lifer, naturally there are a billion pictures. Here are a few of them.

Long limbs, tail and neck

Slatey grey coloured body with lighter grey spots

Jefferson's salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum)

Another Night South of Guelph

When my friend Josh texted me saying 'Would you be interested in herping tonight?' - How could I possibly refuse. We drove out and did some birding beforehand. We heard sandhill cranes and saw red winged blackbirds, sparrows, a phoebe, eastern meadowlarks and two great blue herons. Herping at the same location as the last few times but even more to be found.

Spring Peeper

 The spring peepers were almost deafening as we walked around the pools.

Male spring peeper calling

 Green frogs and bullfrogs were see in the pools and on land.

Bullfrog

 This orb weaving spider was hanging around. Unfortunately I don't know spiders very and can't tell you the species but he was on a very intricate web between branches.

Orb weaving spider

 Our search for four-toed salamanders was quickly satisfied and we were surprised to find a female out by the ponds so early.

Female four-toed salamander

She was very photogenic when I had a flash on the camera.

 As you can imaging finding your Ontario favorites is always a joy. I must thank Dano for finding my favorite Ontario frog, the grey treefrog. Sitting low on some fallen over branches, Dano found something the rest of us haoverlooked. 

Grey treefrog- Hyla versicolour

 

 A distinguishing feature of grey treefrogs is bright yellow-orange on the inside of the legs and large toe pads for good grip even on small branches.

The second grey tree frog was larger than the first

This shot was just too adorable.

 Blue spotted and spotted salamanders were also seen in the pools. Less were seen on land than last time.Red backed salamanders were found by flipping rocks. A few eastern newts were in the pools and on land.

Red eft stage Eastern newt

Cute shot - out of focus

I have determined that Macro photography at night is very difficult without a flash. Head lamps can only do so much.

He crawled back out to pose when I put him back in the water.

 And then out of the corner of my eye.. I see a red speck on a branch before I stepped over it.

He was found like that I swear!

 Needless to say It was a great night with good friends. Many more to come I am sure.

Watch where you step- Herps on the move

So it is official. Spring is here! Birds are singing and the herps are moving again. Just a little ways south of Guelph some fellow herp enthusiasts and I found a good spot of vernal pools. On our way there we stopped in a farmers field and listened to American Woodcocks doing their aerial mating dance.

As we arrive at the vernal pools, I start scanning the waters edge and yes just there out of the corner of my light is a blue spotted salamander. Further searching I find spotted salamanders that look like someone painted bright yellow on them. These first few finds were in water deeper than my boots and swam out of reach fairly quickly.  Moving on around the edge our group had surrounded a spring peeper calling photogenically from a branch.

Spring peeper

Look at those sticky toe pads

 Further around the pool in a shallower section we discovered many more spotted salamanders in the water and along the edge of the pool in moist debris.

Two very cute salamanders found in the water

In every good picture there will always be something in the way be it a leaf, stick or other debris. This would be so much nicer without the debris on his head.

 This green frog was chillin' out nearby the edge of the pool where I was looking for salamanders.

Green frog

 A few small Eastern Newts were seen on the edge where it was really shallow as well.

 This blue spotted salamander was quite large and is suspected to be a laterale-jeffersonianum hybrid.

 Needless to say the group of us all took a lot of pictures.

Chris grabbing a picture of the blue spotted salamander

 As we were herping we heard multiple screech owls calling nearby. As we approached the closest calls we saw one fly away but to our surprise and luck it had been a pair and one stuck around for long enough to get pictures of.

Screech owl

 Many blue spotted salamanders were seen on land as well including these three that were close to each other (but not this close).

Blue spotted salamanders

 This four toed salamander was seen on the edge of the path. It was very tiny so my 18-200mm lens wasn't do ideal for taking pictures of him. Still working on getting a macro lens.

Four-toed salamander