This Fawn came crashing out of the woods and down this path right at me. It turned sharply just a foot or so in front of me and went tumbling over the hill and then down into the woods. It was obviously spooked by something and didn't see me until the last second. I was happy I had enough time to snap a couple photos before it got in too close to me.
I saw the salamander, big guy, 7-8" long. It walked about 3 yards in the snow, looping from the hole shown to another hole in the snow where it crawled into the leaves. Trail width approx 1.5". It was about 30 degrees. On a human trail in deciduous woods. It moved slowly, stretching its legs all the way forward with each step. Pix taken by Mike Bottini the following day, since I had no camera with me when I saw the beast. A biologist we contacted speculated that the salamander may have been diseased or could have been flooded from its burrow by heavy rains earlier in the winter (this would have been late December or early January).
This leucistic individual is Salamander C. This one has been photographed and observed since 2010 many times by Don Scallen and it had at least been alive two years before that, making it thirteen years old- two years older then me!
Calvin I think
I've confirmed that spotted salamanders breed in Vernal Pool #1. Photographed on lower porch.
Metamorphs emigrating from their natal wetland. We found 12 live, and 1 road-killed.
Species breeds successfully in water garden every spring. One individual male has been seen since 2004!
Spermatophore
Spermatophores; in railroad track swale by river
Presumably A. maculatum?
Found walking around on snow by Cynthia Day just north of Hartland Dam in White River Junction VT, an old logging road uphill from Sunrise Farm on Orizzonto Road. There is a manmade pond downhill from where she found it.
One of five found under a single log.
A Wood Frog on top mistaking this Salamander for a female!
About fifty of them in that small spot!
Big gravid female
Bombus vagans or B. sandersoni?
On Linaria vulgaris (butter-and-eggs)