Salamander season ... What Salamander season?

God, Salamander season has been rough.

As I posted earlier, the weather here in Northern California has been warm and sunny all "Winter" long.

But we finally got a good rain on leap day morning, so that afternoon I headed out to the center of campus for a little 'phib hunt while my model organism did its thang for a few hours.

I flipped a dozen or so Ensatinas in about an hour. All looked about the same and I neglected to put in the effort it takes to snap a photo of a single one.

See my goal was not Ensatina, or Batrachosep, which shockingly I got shut out on, but the elusive Santa Cruz Black Salamander, Aneides niger. I had found juveniles last year and was on the hunt for an adult.

I had given up about 20 rocks ago, but half heartedly flipped a couple dozen more rocks and under the third to last rock I flipped was this little guy.  And when I say little, I mean TINY!









This youngster was under a rock that was on very wet dirt.  Adults are usually found under rock on rock. However, every (3, small sample size warning) juvenile I have found has been rock on dirt rather than rock on rock.







No adults, so back to the drawing board, but they have to be close by for a baby like this to exist.  Might already be too late this year, but the good news is that it was wet enough this season to produce this little guy, so the breeding season was not lost.

I still have not gotten my flash fixed so apologies for the less than perfect long-exposure images, but thought they were still worth sharing.

Herping UCSC Part 2.

Last time I checked in I shared some photos from herping in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  In Part 2 we herp the UCSC Upper campus Reserve and the Campus proper.

Heading down Empire Grade we hit up the Upper Campus Reserve at a flooded meadow.  There we found a Pacific Tree Frog, Pseudacris regilla.

We finished our day on the UCSC campus proper on the hunt for the Santa Cruz Black Salamander, Aneides flavipunctatus niger or just Aneides niger if you prefer.  This is a sub-species (or species if you prefer) that is endemic to the Santa Cruz Mountains.  One isolated population is here on campus, so we headed down to the old quarry to flip some rocks.

At the first site all we could find were Ensatinas and Slender Salamanders, Batrachoseps gavilanensis.  I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of an Ensatina with their beautiful split green eye, but here is a handful of Slenders found under the same rock.

Leaving the quarry proper we flipped a few rocks on the ground.  Previously we had been looking for rock on rock hideouts.  However, these ground rocks yielded four juvenile nigers!  In person they seemed much more solid black.  The flash accentuates the blue/white flecking.  I had never noticed that green hue that showed up in one individual.  These guys were probably the find of the day.

Heading back to the car we found this arboreal Salamander, Aneides lugubris, under a log.  It was completely patternless but in need of a bath.

We also found a very nice scorpion, Uroctonus mordax spp, who was not too happy we had lifted up his rock and this unidentified millipede.

Still Waiting ...

It is raining here in Santa Cruz so the camera is going to stay out for a few more days, but rain means it is amphibian season.  I have a couple of Pacific tree frogs,  Pseudacris regilla, singing in my very urban backyard and flipping hide spots revealed quite a few Slender Salamanders, Batrachoseps gavilanensis. So a non-camera trap Ensatina photo while we wait for the rain to slow and see if we got anything on the first set.