Littlest red-backed, home

The weather has gone from merely crazy to totally insane. The temperature today, Christmas Eve, is supposed to reach the 60s, just about our record, and by tomorrow, it may well be the warmest December day in living memory. Stasia and I took advantage of what is, if you look at it the right way, a kind of gift that enabled us to trek the back woods in little more than light jackets. The mosses are intense green and admirably soft, and there are still plenty of intriguing mushrooms growing on logs and in the leaf litter. But as Stasia was looking at a collection of mosses and lichens, we spotted a sudden, quick movement of a small critter. I managed to capture it: a tiny Red-backed Salamander... and clearly, one of this year's young'uns. Stasia didn't want to hold it, but she was happy to view it on a spent oak leaf. Duly noted, we put it back in the same place we found it and left it to enjoy temperatures that make exploration, be the explorer warm- or cold-blooded, downright pleasant.