Four-toed from the side

Late Saturday afternoon, just before the skies opened up and delivered, over the next day, more than five inches of rain, I hiked to the Babcock Ridge vernal pools to listen for chorusing frogs and scour the temporary wetlands for Spotted Salamanders. The woods and the water, however, were quiet, and there was scant sign of batrachian egg masses... yet. And while there were spermatophore groupings, a sure sign that "spotties" had been here recently, the vernal pool leaf litter was devoid of Macs. I'm guessing they were simply waiting in the wings to jump into the breeding sweepstakes and would be very busy in a few hours when the hard rain finally arrived. But there were salamanders here, just not the ones I was looking for. On one large tuft of sphagnum moss that rose out of the water, I spotted a Four-toed Salamander. I don't see members of the Hemidactylium scutatum clan very often, but they're not really uncommon. Right now, they're looking for nest sites in the moss. Even when you can't see the four toes on their hind feet—most salamanders have five—the salt-and-pepper pattern on the animal's belly is an identification giveaway.