On our very first field trip this spring, our herpetology class went to Indian Creek Wildlife Preserve Metropark in Reily, OH on March 18th, 2010. There, we went to a pond in the forest full of row after row of planted white pine. It was warm for mid-March, coming in somewhere in the high 50s or low 60s. Our GA, Tammy, was wrapping up some research at the pond we went to so there was still some remaining drift fence around the parameter and come pitfall traps here and there. This being my first experience with herp-hunting, I wasn't entirely sure where to look. I started out looking in the pond proper but didn't have much luck. Then I began to search around to banks of the pond and there a struck gold (or yellow spotted.) I walked up to a rotted log and spied, with my little eye, a spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum.) This big guy (6-7 inches long) was all curled up, snug as a bug in a rug, in a crevice of the rotten log. Being burrowers, these salamanders spend most of there time underground. It is easiest to find them during their breeding season, mid-March through April, when they emerger from their underground dwellings. They are nocturnal so I suspect that this guy (identified male by the swollen cloaca common among males during the breeding season) was taking a chill break to regain some energy from last night's shenanigans and for the wild night to come.(Julia Steinbach)
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