Thought it would never happen again but it rained! And warmed up! I think it reached 70 yesterday and was in the mid-60's today, with some nice rain overnight. Seemed like it was just what the marbled salamanders were waiting for since several hundred of them left Rainbow Bay last night. Brought 15 large bins of salamanders back to the lab--now they'll be "processed" (measured and photographed) and then we'll release them on the other side of the fence and we won't see them again until next fall. A lot of the ones leaving today were females which means they've abandoned their nests this year. Their eggs won't hatch until the bay finally fills, but who knows if that will even happen this winter! The nests don't fare as well without the females there, but it gets to a point where the females seem to need to cut their losses and go forage and get ready for next year. As the marbled salamanders were leaving the mole salamanders (
Ambystoma talpoideum) were starting to come into the bay. Just a few, probably about 10 or so came in today. Too bad there's no water in the bay so they won't be able to breed yet. Anyway, was great to have some action at the bay---oh and at H-02 wetlands there was a small banded water snake in a bucket, then when I got home a garter snake on my deck. Guess everything was enjoying the change in weather!
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