Spotted that visited

Ordinarily, I wouldn't post a picture of the same critter two days in a row, but there's a story here connected to this particular Spotted Salamander. The photograph was taken at twilight as I released the Mac back into the vernal pool behind my house, but the tale began last Saturday night around 11 o'clock during an amazing rainstorm. Mad dogs, Englishmen... and naturalists: we're quite crazy, and a little monsoon is hardly enough to keep us from our appointed endeavors. In my case, of course, that task would be to check on the amphibians heading to the temporary ponds to breed, and, since they revel in wet weather, there were plenty of frogs and salamanders to observe on the night in question. Using my weatherproof camera, I got what I hoped were decent images, and then, mission accomplished, returned home to dry out. But when I headed to the back steps, I noticed that we had an unlikely visitor: a male "spotty" that must have overwintered in the stone wall perhaps or in a burrow somewhere nearby. I took the handsome gentleman inside and placed him in a suitable container in the refrigerator so I could use him as both a model and a "show-and-tell" subject at the public vernal-pool walk I led last night. Now, it was time to set him free to join the breeding sweepstakes. Surprisingly, he seemed reluctant to leave, but better here than in the 'frig, so I placed him in the water, wished him luck and many kids, and left.