Observing sals:

I live on 30 acres of wetland/forest and have been searching HOURS each day in an attempt to locate Ambystoma maculatum (spotted salamander) or Ambystoma opacum... I've been searching water pools for Notophthalmus viridescens for even longer.

Five years ago, I could locate the newts in abundance hiking.... but today, I cannot find ANY. More than 80% of the property I live on hasn't had a human walk on it in 50+ years... yet, I can't find any.

I have pictures in the gallery of some spots I was checking (I've given up on those spots since, fathead minnows dominate the area) and moved deeper into the wetlands/forest. Midday today I checked around 60 cover objects with no luck. The area I was searching was a recently dried streambed with mud that I can plunge my hand in 8 inches without effort. I was flipping likely logs and rocks in the area with no luck.

What are the best strategies/locations/times of day to look for the creatures? I'm going to try again at 5am tomorrow.

Woke up at 6AM and decided to look for Notophthalmus viridescens instead of salamanders (I was tired... it was a 15 minute walk to the most likely Sal area and 2 to the red spotted newt area).

I was able to find one adult Notophthalmus viridescens @3.5 inches or so, first one I've seen in 2 years.

EDIT: Just got a closer look, turned out to be Desmognathus fuscus fuscus (Northern Dusky Salamander).