3-31-16

Trip Details

Location: Linn County, Iowa

Weather: 50 degrees, windy

Time: 4:00 p.m.

Herpers: Don Becker, Jim Scharosch

Don asked me if I wanted to go to a known location for Blue Spotted Salamanders to check traps with him. This was a site survey being done with permission and state permits. I don't like to disturb endangered species, so this was a chance to see some within the confines of a scientific study.

There isn't a lot to tell, we checked the traps at the site and right away we started finding Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens).

By the time we were done we found 36 newts in the traps. These were actually my first newts in Iowa. I obviously don't spend a lot of time searching for amphibians. They don't sit still for very long, and I didn't want to mess around a lot with photos so this was the best I got.

 

Only one trap contained Blue Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma laterale), and it held two.

The other one had a lot more pronounced blue spotting.

It had been a number of years since I had seen one, so was cool to see them again. We saw a handful of frogs in the traps as well, but I didn't pay much attention to what we found.

It was a fun trip, thanks to Don for asking me to tag along!