Salamanders
When I was little, I used to look for salamanders on the road after a rainfall in the summer. During the summer, a nice cool rain would bring them out and you could find them very easily along the road.
This is a salamander, or a red spotted newt, native to the Eastern US. When they’re young, they’re this vibrant orangey red color. They turn brown as they get older and head towards the water.
The weather turned on our last couple days in the US this last time. On the last afternoon, Paul and I took a bike ride down the road. As it had just rained I held out some hope of spotting a salamander, and I was in luck. I thought it might be a bit cold for them, but we ended up spotting two. I had to flag Paul down on his bike though, as he very nearly ran one over! But once he understood what it was all about, he made fast friends.
We didn’t disrupt them too much – just made sure they crossed the road safely!
1 Comment »
Mandy on 26 Oct 2008 at 9:03 am #
What memories! I remember the big pickle jars that you aned I would create terraniums out of – then look for salamanders and those itty bitty tree frogs nad move them into there new home that we had made for them. They were fun too watch – then you got into hermit crabs later down the road -never did understand that; I aleays thought they were boring – salamanders were much cooler! And they didn’t pinch!