Re-dried Vernal, Babcock

At the end of last month, I rejoiced to see, on a very rainy night, that one of the vernal pools I monitor at the Babcock Ridge Preserve, was not only finally holding water and about one-third full, but it was also serving as a nursery for Marbled Salamander larvae. While I never did find the egg-sheltering female, I know that she must have been here; the incontrovertible evidence was swimming everywhere in the leaf litter now covered with about a foot of water in the bottom area of this depression in the woods. The rains, however, didn't really last, and the water table in our area is so low from the ongoing drought that the vernal soon dried up. It was barely moist when I arrived to make my weekly check, and the initial crop of Marbleds-to-be had run out of luck... and nurturing moisture. The only sign of salamander life I spotted was a Red-backed hiding under one of the vernal pool logs. Ambystoma opacum bad luck was good fortune for Plethodon cinereus.

Red-backed, Babcock