End of the season newt count.

Another season of amphibian spotting has come and almost gone. I saw my first newt on 3/21 and my last on 10/31(were they trick or treating?). This year my girlfriend and I kept a running tally of our encounters and have a grand total of 5362 newts counted in 2004. We did not keep a record of the other salamander species that we found, but there were lots of lungless types (northern two line, redback, dusky) and 1 yellow spotted.
It was a good season for caudates overall in New York, since the weather was cool and wet.

[Tim Johnson]

That's probably more than most of us here will ever see in a lifetime!

Last Wednesday, I rented a car for $60, drove for 6 hours roundtrip, spent $35 in highway toll fees, and later had to shell out $200 for denting the door of my rental car on a guard rail, all in a unsuccessful effort to show a European guest some Onychodactylus japonicus larvae in the wild (this after having already shown him O. j adults and larvae in captivity).

How I envy those with easy access to the great outdoors!

Anyway, here's hoping you have even better luck in 2005!

Thanks! I am hoping that in 2005 we can keep track of the other caudates that we see on a regular basis. I agree that I am fortunate to have several good spots within easy driving distance. Some can be quite spectacular on a rainy day. Our highest one day count this year was over 600 efts on a relatively short hike in a local nature preserve.

[Tim Johnson]

I visited a location in California earlier this year where I reckon I could easily have found a couple hundred slender salamanders -- if I had looked under enough logs. But after a while, I began to worry about the effect of my disturbance of their microhabitats on both the newts and their prey items. Mind you, this was a very dry area and it seemed the only place for them to survive was under these logs. Of course, I didn't "flip" the logs and I did try to replace them to where and as they were, but it still didn't seem to be a good idea to continue. I suppose it's a bit different out east where it's nice and wet almost year-round