Our salamander surveys are drawing to a close. We will miss going off the beaten path in the name of science. We have learned so much and are truly grateful that we had this opportunity. Last week, we were fortunate to find a salamander that we had yet to meet in our park, the two lined salamander. This little guy played hide and seek with us for a while, and it took us a few minutes to capture him after we spotted him. The two lined salamander is characterized by it bright yellow underbelly. They can either be found in streams or in the woods nearby. This particular one was only about 3 inches long, but he brought us great joy because he was something we hadn't seen before.
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With our salamander surveys in full swing, we are finding lots of wonderful little slimy creatures that aren't always salamanders. On our last hunt we were fortunate to find an elusive wormsnake. These little beauties hide under logs and eat worms. They are characterized by their pink underside. The one in the picture is an adult. The wormsnake entertained us by literally tying itself into knots and doing a boa constrictor impression on Jonah's finger. We managed to find a total of 38 salamanders last week during a nice rainy day. Here are some of the highlights:
After two hours of sifting through mud, rocks and logs we were ready to give up. Finally a log hidden among the leaves revealed what we were looking for a salamander. Unfortunately we had no idea what kind it was, so we took lots of pictures. This chubby little guy had us fooled for a while because we had no idea that it could even be a red backed salamander until we counted the costal grooves (lines in its side- marking ribs.) The red backed salamander can have between 18 and 22 and this little guy had plenty of them. After a trip to the Nature Center to confirm our findings, we had our answer-it was a lead phase red backed salamander. The shocking part was that there is no red on its body at all. Dusky salamanders are a type of salamander called lungless salamander. These salamanders don't have lungs and breathe through their skin. They are brown or reddish brown to gray or olive coloring. They are also lightly spotted sometimes, and have slightly darker marking on the top and sides than its belly. They have 14 coastal grooves in all. They have a knife like tail that is less than half its body length. Adults are 6.4 to 14.2 cm in length. The males are longer than females.
Their habitat is wooded with running or trickling sources of water. They are often found under flat rocks and logs near rock or hillside streams or seeps. They are also found by misty waterfalls. They can be active year round if their stream doesn't freeze. If it does freeze they will burrow under gravel or dirt until they are below the frostline. Jonah and I have been to many trainings in the last week, most of them for our amphibian friends. We are the proud salamander surveyors of a park in Arlington. In the next two months we will be counting salamanders and recording data that will be used by the county to asses the overall health of the parks in Arlington. We are learning to identify the many different salamanders that live in the area and can't wait to get started on the next rainy day!
We went out looking for spotted salamanders today. Even though the snow is still out, the spotted salamanders are active looking for a mate. We were looking for them near vernal pools. These yellow polka dotted salamanders look more exotic than they are. In fact, they are found throughout Virginia. Spotted salamanders are a type of mole salamander. Even though they have mole in their name they don't actually burrow. Instead they use other animals dens and tunnels, such as shrews and moles. These elusive salamanders are nocturnal and only mate for one week for the entire year, and are hard to find. Despite their secretive nature, these salamanders, will gather in the hundreds at vernal pools or ponds during the breeding season. The female salamanders can lay up to 200 eggs that are usually attached to an underwater object. During dry season when the vernal pools are dried up the larvae will start to grow faster. The most obvious feature of the spotted salamander is its yellow or orange spots that run on either side of its spine. These spots aren't just for fashion, it's also a warning. During an attack it'll release a sticky secretion that is poisonous or just distasteful do the predator. Fun fact: The Spotted Salamander egg clusters are coated in a sticky slime and certain types of algae grow inside the eggs with the larvae. When the larvae poops the algae will eat it and in turn it'll make oxygen. -by Jonah Kim The fantastic FLYING SQUIRRELDid you realize, that there are flying squirrels in Fairfax County? At night, what you judged was merely a bat might be a flying squirrel. These nocturnal squirrels are the tiniest species of squirrel, making it an arduous task to locate them. These omnivorous creatures weigh between 2 to 4 ounces as adults, and their light weight helps them glide from tree to tree in the dark of night. Flying squirrels survive up to six years in the wild, and in those six years they are careful to stay out of sight. For coyotes, racoons, and other predators see the flying squirrel as a delicious little morsel. Flying squirrel are very social squirrels, and if you spot one, most likely you'll notice others. So, be on the look out, for these great gliding creatures of the forest are often mistaken for bats, and you could have them in your neighborhood.
-by Gabriel Kim The boys and I are thrilled to be a part of this year's Salamander survey in Alexandria where we will be on the look out for some migrating salamanders and frogs. This week the little critters have started coming out looking for their vernal pools where they hope to find their love for the season, lay some eggs, and then it's back into hiding for these little guys. So drive slow if you live by a vernal pool and walk with a flash light at night and maybe you'll get a glimpse of this mini migration.
We were pretty busy in February with the snow, which cancelled many of our stream monitoring opportunities. Although we did attend the council meeting in January, we have been pretty busy trying to schedule some follow up meetings. We had a great response from the community to our video , but haven't heard anything from the county. We started building awareness for our cause locally by joining the neighborhood site and promoting our video there and contacting several local list serves. We have joined FrogWatch and a Salamander Patrol in nearby Arlington in hopes that we can learn ways to support our own community by participating in these events. For now, we are just enjoying our local streams.
Today the boys and I filmed and edited our video which we will submit to the Environmental Quality Advisory Council for a meeting on January 21. Click here to see what we did today: http://youtu.be/Et9Aeydd3-s
We will make a 5 minute video with the help of some of our neighbors and friends, each boy will speak for 1 minute on each section.
Jonah will introduce himself and his concerns how the dredging of our lake will effect the ecosystem. he will ask for the county's help in monitoring the reptiles,salamanders and amphibians in the surrounding area that will be affected by the dredging (1 minute) Gabriel: Will Introduce Woodglen Lake and it's purpose as part of the watershed (1 minute) Woodglen Lake is part of the water shed, which drains into the Potomac River, which in turn drains into the Chesapeake Bay. Woodglen lake is a man made lake that collects the run off from our roofs, streets, lawns, parking lots, and many other places. However, the water that flows into the Woodglen Lake does not have enough time to soak into the ground on it's journey. Instead, all of the chemicals and garbage from the streets, lawns and roofs go into the lake along with the water. All of this pollution sits in the lake, and the lake in some ways acts like a filter. The sediment collects on the bottom of the lake. Over time, the sediment fills the bottom of the lake. Because of the sediment, our lake is now about half the size it was meant to be originally. Sometime in late winter or early spring, the lake will be dredged, removing the sediment from our lake. Jonah: Will be talking about Stream Quality and our monitoring experiences (1minute) We wanted to know if the stream was healthy before the dredging. We did a stream survey and found out the stream was rated very poor (unacceptable). The reason why the stream is so unhealthy is because runoff. Runoff is: oil,gasoline,trash,sand,salt,mud,leaves and chemicals. The reason why the runoff gets into the stream is because it doesn't have a chance to get filtered through the ground. It just runoffs the concrete and pavement down into the storm drains, and into the stream. Sam: Will give us Solutions of things we can do at our own house to help: (1 minute) Here are some things we came up with: · Rain garden · Clean ups at our lake · Don’t put chemical fertilizers on the lawn · Environmentally friendly soap · At winter don’t use salt use sand instead · Make a rain barrel · Wash your car on the grass |
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March 2018
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