Salamanders in the Drain

My house in Southern Ohio sits atop a small cellar that was part of an old farm house constructed in 1875.  A drain pipe runs from the cellar to a point near a seasonal pond in front of the house.  During the wet season, a seasonal spring emerges from the brick in one corner of the cellar and flows across the floor to the drain.  For some reason, beginning just a couple of years ago, salamanders have been coming up the drain and making themselves at home in the cellar.  Here are a few species that wandered in this past winter and spring.

Jefferson Salamander – This species is the first to arrive at the pond during the breeding season.  They sometimes lay their eggs as early as December.

Streamside Salamander – This uncommon salamander is almost identical in appearance to the Smallmouth Salamander.  The main difference between the two species is in the location and method of laying eggs.  Smallmouth Salamanders breed in still pools and deposit multiple eggs in a jelly-like mass.  Streamside Salamanders breed in small headwater streams or pools and deposit their eggs singly, but in close proximity so as to form a grouping of several eggs, beneath rocks, logs, leaves or other flat bottomed debris. Streamside Salamanders begin their breeding activities very soon after the Jeffersons.

Red-Spotted Newt – Adults of this species are typically found in permanent bodies of water, but they are also able to survive in seasonal pools that are dry during the summer and early fall.

Southern Two-Lined Salamander – I don’t normally find this species far from rocky creeks.  The instinct to disperse is present to some degree in all animals.  When conditions are right, the animal just takes off and travels.  Some die and some colonize new areas.  This individual may have been in dispersal mode.

Marbled Salamander – This species lays its eggs in the fall in locations that will contain water when the end of year rains begin.  Once inundated, the eggs hatch.  Adults commonly wander during late winter and spring rains.  I’ve lived here for 34 years, but it was just two years ago that I saw my first Marbled Salamander.  That individual was found in my cellar.  Even though I’ve seen this species each year since, all individuals have been found in my cellar.  I’ve yet to encounter one outdoors.

On warm days, I gather up the visitors and release them outdoors.  There is an old brush pile just upstream of the pond that seems to me to be an ideal release point.

Spotted Salamanders

I’ve had exceptional luck finding salamanders at Blue Jay Barrens so far this year. The most recent species to enter the breeding pond is the Spotted Salamander.

This is the first time in many years that I’ve found the Spotted Salamander en route to the pond. I most commonly see this species after it has already made it into the water.

The past month has produced several warm nights with long duration gentle rains. This, combined with the fact that soils are both unfrozen and saturated with water, has produced ideal conditions for amphibian migrations. The conditions are also ideal for humans anxious to witness these migrations.

This is the first year that I have managed to find multiple individuals of the species. Males are generally the first to arrive at the breeding pond, and each salamander I found was a male. The question now is when the weather will be suitable for the females to make their migration. The forecast for the next week or so is for cold, dry conditions. The males may just have to wait for a while before they get company.

The temperature was around 50° F the night I found these salamanders. All were making rapid progress towards the pond. This one paused just long enough for one quick shot before it slid into the pond and headed for deeper water. Now, any fresh egg masses I find of the pond should be those of the Spotted Salamander.

Marbled Salamander

Yesterday, I added a new species to the Blue Jay Barrens salamander list.  Marbled Salamander, Ambystoma opacum, is a species that I read about and was fascinated by while I was in the fifth grade.  After decades of waiting, this is my first ever wild encounter with this species.

Like other Ambystomas, Marbled Salamanders utilize temporary pools as egg laying sites.  The thing that sets this species apart though, is the fact that it breeds in the fall and places eggs in the pool while the site is still dry.  Eggs hatch when winter rains fill the pools.  This gives the Marbled Salamander larvae a head start and slight advantage over those species that place their eggs in the pool later in the season.  Marbled Salamander larvae can sometimes be serious predators of smaller salamander larvae and frog tadpoles.

The black and white coloring of this animal is quite striking. Thick rain clouds cast a decidedly gloomy pall over the forest floor, but this bright little salamander glowed as if carrying an inner light. If the coloration is intended as a type of camouflage, it was certainly falling short of the mark on this day.

It’s certainly exciting to have this species is a local resident. I hope to encounter many more of its kind in the years to come.

Streamside Salamanders in the Pond

Water depth, glare, and wind ripples have made it impossible for me to see whether or not the sunken tiles, rocks and boards, intended to receive the eggs of the Streamside Salamander, have actually been used this season. Streamside Salamanders typically lay their eggs on the undersides of flat rocks in small flowing streams. Absence of flowing water and large flat rocks will not necessarily make these salamanders abandon their breeding efforts. I added a breeding structure to the pond at Blue Jay Barrens in an attempt to provide a population of pond breeding Streamside Salamanders with a suitable structure to receive their eggs. In the past, this breeding aid has been readily used, but even in its absence Streamside Salamanders find a way to anchor their eggs and ensure breeding success.

When the water level drops in early summer, I use this board as a way to cross the mud between the dry bank and open water. During the winter and early spring months, I allow the board to float freely in the pond.

I used to remove the board during the winter and put it in a dry location for storage. One year the pond filled quickly from a late autumn rainstorm followed by a quick freeze that trapped the board in the ice in the center the pond. The board stayed out of reach until early spring. When I finally went to pull it in, I found the bottom surface covered with Streamside Salamander eggs. Now I just let the board stay in the pond as an alternate breeding site for the Streamside Salamanders.

The Streamside Salamanders also utilize as an egg laying site, pads of terrestrial moss that grow on the bottom of pond during the dry season. The activity of the egg laying salamanders causes the moss to lose contact with the muddy pond bottom and begin to float free.

Some of the moss pads containing egg clusters are held in place by surrounding vegetation. Others break loose and float about the pond. The eggs seem to develop properly and hatch in either condition.

The Jefferson Salamander eggs have picked up a covering of silt washed in from the nearby Township road. This covering may actually provide a beneficial screen against excessive UV radiation.

The embryos in the cluster are well-developed and probably within a week of hatching.

Many empty jellies are also floating around the pond, a sign that a successful hatching has been completed.

Wood Frogs have been calling from the pond for the past week. New egg clusters appear every night.

Most of the Wood Frog tadpoles will end up as salamander food. All of the tadpoles, both frog and salamander, will be racing to complete their metamorphosis before the water of the temporary pond disappears later this summer.

Salamander Breeding - Phase Two

Salamander breeding season at Blue Jay Barrens is proceeding in what has become a normal pattern.  Activity begins with the arrival of Jefferson Salamanders in late December or early January and progresses in waves before ending with the arrival of Spotted Salamanders in March or April.  In advance of a forecast rainstorm, I examined the salamander eggs that had been deposited in the pond during a late December breeding event.

Jefferson Salamander eggs from that event had been attached to submerged plant stalks.  After roughly a month in the water, they were showing a characteristic opaque appearance with a greenish cast from algae growing on the outside of the masses.

Submerged clay tile and boards, intended to receive eggs from the Streamside Salamander, remained unused.  Streamside Salamanders typically enter the pond several weeks after the first of the Jeffersons.

Rain began during late evening of February 2 and continued until early the next morning.  The combination of rainy weather and warm temperatures created ideal conditions for more salamanders to move into the pond.  Unfortunately, the almost two inches of rain, most of which fell in a short period during the middle of the night, caused a lot of dirty water to runoff of the township road.  I couldn’t see into the water well enough to detect any signs of new salamander activity.

Four days later, the near shore water was practically clear and new salamander egg clusters were clearly visible. 

This most recent batch of eggs is a month behind those shown earlier.  These larvae will hatch later and be smaller than their predecessors, making it highly likely that many will end up as food items for their larger relatives.

A snow storm, leading another round of subfreezing temperatures, moved in before the water cleared enough for me to see into the deeper water where the Streamside Salamander breeding structures are located. 

The pond is now iced over and snow covered.  I’ll have to wait a bit before again assessing the salamander breeding progress.  Weather forecast for the week calls for snow followed by rain and then temperatures climbing to near 60°F by Friday, so I shouldn’t have to wait long.

Jefferson Salamanders Breeding

Five inches of rain fell at Blue Jay Barrens between December 22 and December 28.  The result was a pond full of water and the start of the 2016 salamander breeding season.  The water remained high and murky for a few days following the end of the rain, but by January 1 had regained its clarity and returned to its typical winter full level.

Egg clusters were evidence that salamanders had moved into the pond sometime during that December rain.  Even when I’m out at the right time, I rarely encounter salamanders entering the pond.  I believe most emerge from a series of subterranean passages associated with a seasonal spring that flows into the upper end of the pond.  During times of low pond water level, I have observed salamanders moving into and out of these passages.  When water level is high, the distance from the passage openings to the pond is less than a foot, so there’s not much opportunity to view a salamander heading for the pond.  Add to this the fact that runoff water travels both through these passages and over the passage openings, and it becomes nearly impossible to find salamanders while it is actually raining.

A few new egg clusters appear every day. 

Several egg clusters were attached to twigs that were inundated while the pond was in flood stage.  As soon as the water returned to its normal level, these eggs were left hanging in the air.  They have suffered from both drying and freezing, so they are lost.  Fortunately, the eggs suffering this fate were but a small percentage of the total in the pond.

The only species I am currently seeing in the pond is Jefferson Salamanders.  This is typical.  Jeffersons usually appear in early January, Streamside Salamanders enter the pond in early February and Spotted Salamanders show up in March.  The Jefferson Salamanders will remain in the pond for another month or two and will probably be joined by more of their species later in the month.  Near the end of the breeding season there will be Jefferson Salamander egg clusters in all stages of development from newly laid to ready to hatch.  Even though winter still has about two and a half months to go, the presence of salamander eggs makes me feel that spring has arrived.

Wood Frog Eggs Hatching

Wood Frog egg masses are falling apart and the developing larvae are breaking through the egg membrane into open water.  Even though they have left the egg, the larvae are not yet free swimming.  Most just flutter to the pond bottom where they will rest for the next couple of days.  During this time they will use up the remaining yolk in their egg sack as they develop into a more typical tadpole shape.

Some egg clusters lost their globular shape and floated about on the water’s surface.  This did not seem to affect hatching at all.  Even so, there were several larvae that emerged on the upper surface of the raft and seemed in danger not making it down into the water.

Other egg clusters fell to the pond bottom.  No matter where they ended up, all of the egg masses produced healthy larvae.

Egg masses laid a little later in the season were still in the early stages of development.  The pond was ice covered on many mornings during the past two weeks.  I imagine the cold temperatures played a part in the delayed development.

The floating tree branch did an outstanding job of keeping the frog and salamander eggs from being exposed during times of falling water level.  A shortage of rainfall during March caused the pond water level to drop to record low levels for this time of year.  I was able to maneuver the tree branch into the deepest part of the pond and the eggs on the branch were spared exposure to the air.

Jelly masses that once protected salamander eggs broke lose and floated freely about the pond.

Almost all of the jellies were empty.  Most successfully produced salamander larvae, but a few contained unfertilized eggs that were consumed by fungus.

There were just a few larvae that had not left the egg.  Now I just have to wait a few weeks for the larvae to grow large enough for me to see them in the pond.  Water won’t be a problem for a while.  Thunder storms earlier today dropped 1.2 inches of rainfall and the pond is now near its full level.  More storm clouds are hurrying in from the west and I’m rushing to type this and get it posted before the heavy rain once again blocks my internet satellite link.

Streamside Salamander

While looking beneath some decomposing wood in the stream channel, I was lucky enough to find an adult Streamside Salamander.  This is the first adult of the species I’ve seen at the creek for almost ten years.  I always enjoy finding salamanders.  It’s a double treat when the species I discover is a rarity.

I always check around this time of year to monitor the breeding success of the Streamside Salamanders.  This particular species attaches its eggs to the underside of submerged flat rocks in moving water.  Fortunately, the creek has an abundance of flat rocks.  This particular rock protected a clutch of eggs two years ago.  Since then it has moved with the flood water about 20 feet downstream.

Rocks that move during high water flows do not provide the safest situation for developing salamander eggs.  If a flood begins to scoot this rock along, the eggs will most likely be lost.  The fact that I’ve again found eggs here must indicate that there is something about this rock that beckons the breeding salamander.

Large rocks that maintain their position from year-to-year provide the best egg laying locations.  The pool below these flat rocks fills with salamander larvae each year.  These rocks are large enough to accommodate multiple females.

This droopy head posture makes it appear that the salamander doesn’t have the neck muscles to hold its head up.  Its natural tendency when placed in the open is to burrow or get beneath something.  The rock offers no ingress, but if a crack or hole were encountered, the head would go in and the body would quickly follow.

The Streamside Salamander has a base color and markings that closely match the rocks in the creek.  This species spends most of its life in underground burrows and comes to the surface only at breeding time.  Most of the breeding time is spent in the creek, so being able to match the substrate in that location is a valuable asset.

The vertical grooves along the side of the body are called costal grooves and each represents the position of a rib.  The number of costal grooves is sometimes used to distinguish species, such as the Streamside and the nearly identical Smallmouth Salamander.  Unfortunately, that’s not a guaranteed method of identification, so I’m just relying on the fact that this guy was in a stream and am calling it a Streamside.

This individual had a particularly chunky tail.  The tail is used as a fat storage area, so a big tail indicates a healthy salamander that is feeding well and has an excellent chance to survive the lean times.  This tail was so large that it made the animal appear out of proportion.  I hope the rest of the population is doing as well.