The rest of the garden planning can wait, but it's nice to know that we should have a beautiful display in store come March and April. I bought multicoloured narcissi, parrot tulips, double-petalled tulips, grape hyacinths, wood hyacinths, crocuses, and snowdrops - all my favourites. I can't wait to see them come up - if they make it through the winter and don't get eaten by squirrels first, that is.
While A. was turning over the soil in the beds, we came across several salamanders. I haven't played wiv a salamander in years. My brother and I used to collect salamanders and froggies and toads when we were kids. I made a makeshift terrarium out of clingfilm, a glass dish, and some dirt and moss, and kept one of them captive for the afternoon until I had time to play with him later. Isn't he cool?
Don't worry, I let him go right after I took the pic!
3 comments:
Northern Red-backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Fantastic that they've managed to stick around; I wasn't sure they survived in disturbed habitat.
HA! I should have known you would know exactly what it was! Though I'm amazed you were able to identify the species, given the crappiness of the photo.
Funny that he's 'red-backed' - while digging, A. spotted another, much larger guy, who was very definitely red all over.
There aren't exactly many possibilities; when there are only five possible species to choose from, it's pretty easy. It's definitely a plethodontid salamander by its body shape, which means it's either a red-backed sally or a four-toed sally, and I don't think it's the latter.
Also, I've seen my share of red-backed salamanders; case in point. (Note the two different colour phases: "red-backed" and "lead-backed.")
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