Kick-off to the "Big Year" (Part 1/2)
Friday March 31st, 2017 was the official start date to my herping "big year" in Ontario.
A big year is a term used by birders to describe their goal of finding the largest number of bird species within a certain geographical area within one calendar year. I have decide to take this idea and morph it into something new for reptiles and amphibians. I am calling this the every Ontario herp challenge. This year it will be signified and hashtagged on social media with my tag "#everyONherp2017". Please feel free to follow my updates on the blog to get more in depth stories of the adventures of finding each species, follow my picture updates on instagram, and/or follow updates that I will be posting on the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas page on facebook. Any support by identifying your sightings to me through emails or messaging on social media would be appreciated (please refer to the contact me page for my email address).
As I was saying, last Friday was the start to my herping year in 2017. Since I am currently living up in Deep River, Ontario (just north-east of Algonquin Park) I have not been able to observe any reptile or amphibian species that some of the folks in Southern Ontario had seen with the drastic warm spells in February and early March. But, having seen all of these photographs of species being observed brought me excitement to start off my year with a herping trip. I looked at the weather, contacted my herping partner Sterling, and planned a trip to see some of the early emergent species.
After just over six hours of driving from Deep River back to my home town area in Hamilton/Dundas/Ancaster, I met up with Sterling and we set off to some of our favourite salamander locations in the Dundas Valley. Our goals for the day were to find Eastern Red-backed Salamanders, Jefferson (polyploid) Salamanders, Spotted Salamanders, and potentially Blue-spotted Salamanders along with Wood Frogs.
Upon arrival things weren't looking optimal. It was lightly raining and only about 4 degrees Celsius. But we were ready to try anyway so we threw on our rain ponchos, got out the umbrella and set out.
After flipping over logs for about ten minutes we finally saw the first herp of the weekend. Sterling had flipped an Eastern Red-backed Salamander! There was a lot of excitement about this little guy on my end.
After fumbling around with umbrellas and cameras in the rain I was able to get one or two shots of the salamander, place him back underneath his log and continue on to the next spot.
The next spot is a location where both Sterling and I have searched at for many years and always produces good numbers of Ambystomids. This time was no different. The first board that I flipped had a nice young Jefferson complex Salamander (a salamander with both jeffersonianum and laterale genes represented) underneath it. As we continued through the site I found seven more Jefferson Salamanders under logs and boards. Most of which I did not photograph due to poor weather conditions. However, I did manage to get a couple of photos worth sharing.
After all Salamanders were back where they were found we continued on to a vernal pool that hosts large numbers of mating wood frogs every year. Unfortunately, as expected, the wood frogs were not out calling yet. The temperatures were just a little bit too low.
Now very wet with ripped rain ponchos from some not so friendly encounters with rose bushes we had debated on calling it a day. Thankfully though we decided to try one last spot where we often find Spotted Salamanders. And sure enough, a few rock flips later, I had flipped over two beautiful Spotted Salamanders. It was an interesting flip as both salamanders were just emerging from what seemed to be a mammal burrow underneath the rock. I have seen this before but not very often. I quickly picked up the salamanders before they could dive down the burrow and put them on top of the rock for a quick picture. I then released them back down into their burrow and photographed the big male going down inside.
As can be seen, the female salamander (pictured on top of the male in the first photo) seems to be missing multiple digits on her front left hand. I have seen multiple Spotted Salamanders with toes missing, but it is always something interesting and worth noting.
After watching the salamanders slunk back into the warmer earth Sterling and I headed back home to rest up in preparation for the next days adventures. We were off to Norfolk County!
- Ryan Wolfe
A big year is a term used by birders to describe their goal of finding the largest number of bird species within a certain geographical area within one calendar year. I have decide to take this idea and morph it into something new for reptiles and amphibians. I am calling this the every Ontario herp challenge. This year it will be signified and hashtagged on social media with my tag "#everyONherp2017". Please feel free to follow my updates on the blog to get more in depth stories of the adventures of finding each species, follow my picture updates on instagram, and/or follow updates that I will be posting on the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas page on facebook. Any support by identifying your sightings to me through emails or messaging on social media would be appreciated (please refer to the contact me page for my email address).
As I was saying, last Friday was the start to my herping year in 2017. Since I am currently living up in Deep River, Ontario (just north-east of Algonquin Park) I have not been able to observe any reptile or amphibian species that some of the folks in Southern Ontario had seen with the drastic warm spells in February and early March. But, having seen all of these photographs of species being observed brought me excitement to start off my year with a herping trip. I looked at the weather, contacted my herping partner Sterling, and planned a trip to see some of the early emergent species.
After just over six hours of driving from Deep River back to my home town area in Hamilton/Dundas/Ancaster, I met up with Sterling and we set off to some of our favourite salamander locations in the Dundas Valley. Our goals for the day were to find Eastern Red-backed Salamanders, Jefferson (polyploid) Salamanders, Spotted Salamanders, and potentially Blue-spotted Salamanders along with Wood Frogs.
Upon arrival things weren't looking optimal. It was lightly raining and only about 4 degrees Celsius. But we were ready to try anyway so we threw on our rain ponchos, got out the umbrella and set out.
After flipping over logs for about ten minutes we finally saw the first herp of the weekend. Sterling had flipped an Eastern Red-backed Salamander! There was a lot of excitement about this little guy on my end.
 |
| Eastern Red-backed Salamander - Dundas Valley |
After fumbling around with umbrellas and cameras in the rain I was able to get one or two shots of the salamander, place him back underneath his log and continue on to the next spot.
The next spot is a location where both Sterling and I have searched at for many years and always produces good numbers of Ambystomids. This time was no different. The first board that I flipped had a nice young Jefferson complex Salamander (a salamander with both jeffersonianum and laterale genes represented) underneath it. As we continued through the site I found seven more Jefferson Salamanders under logs and boards. Most of which I did not photograph due to poor weather conditions. However, I did manage to get a couple of photos worth sharing.
 |
| Jefferson Salamander (Complex) - Dundas Valley) |
 |
| Jefferson Salamander (Complex) - Dundas Valley |
After all Salamanders were back where they were found we continued on to a vernal pool that hosts large numbers of mating wood frogs every year. Unfortunately, as expected, the wood frogs were not out calling yet. The temperatures were just a little bit too low.
Now very wet with ripped rain ponchos from some not so friendly encounters with rose bushes we had debated on calling it a day. Thankfully though we decided to try one last spot where we often find Spotted Salamanders. And sure enough, a few rock flips later, I had flipped over two beautiful Spotted Salamanders. It was an interesting flip as both salamanders were just emerging from what seemed to be a mammal burrow underneath the rock. I have seen this before but not very often. I quickly picked up the salamanders before they could dive down the burrow and put them on top of the rock for a quick picture. I then released them back down into their burrow and photographed the big male going down inside.
 |
| Spotted Salamander - Dundas Valley |
 |
| Spotted Salamander - Dundas Valley |
As can be seen, the female salamander (pictured on top of the male in the first photo) seems to be missing multiple digits on her front left hand. I have seen multiple Spotted Salamanders with toes missing, but it is always something interesting and worth noting.
After watching the salamanders slunk back into the warmer earth Sterling and I headed back home to rest up in preparation for the next days adventures. We were off to Norfolk County!
- Ryan Wolfe
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