Where are the Salamanders?

 I have seen just one salamander (Salamandra salamandra) this Spring - the one I fished out of our irrigation tank in the middle of February. Normally by this time we have seen lots of them, making their way from the river beds into the woods, or vice versa, crossing the track in the dark so that we have to drive at a crawl to avoid hitting them.

 

Not sallying out...

 But not this year. Where are the salamanders?

Salamanders in my Salad Spinner

We had a veterinary visit before Christmas, from a vet who is an absolute amphibian admirer. On a wet and blustery night, she headed down to the stream to count salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). In November there are lots of salamanders moving around...so she picked up a few to photograph them...

Too many for the Tupperware

...and then picked up more, and more, until we had fifteen chunky salamanders in the only container with sides that were steep enough to prevent them climbing out - my salad spinner.

We're all in a spin

Hence the aliterating title, with due respect to Lucy Daniels, the wonderful children's author of Llama on the Loose, Puppy in Peril and many other aliterating animal titles.

We photographed the salamanders - not easy, when they are warm and start to move fast - and plan to do a recapture in a month or so. Their patterns are, I think, unique to each individual so we should be able to do a population estimate with a few captures and recaptures. All of the salamanders were returned to their homes after the short spell indoors.

Newt it's Not

I thought that we had spotted newts in the seasonal river ('riera' in Catalan) that flows from our spring. But I did not, of course, have my camera.

So I took the camera, and photographed what I thought was a cute young Marbled Newt, Triturus marmoratus, in our very clean spring water:

Newt to be missed

But I was wrong. My friends over at the Montseny Newt LIFE research programme have told me that it's a juvenile salamander, Salamandra salamandra...

Like the newts, the salamanders need the river while they grow - you can just see her external gills in the picture - but then disappear into the grass and woodland as the riera dries up in the summer.

 I'm still sure we have newts. So I'll keep dropping in to the river to see what I can photograph...

Mother, saved

This female salamander, whom I guess to be pregnant - she was certainly big bellied - was stuck on a wee wooden ledge in our irrigation tank.

This is NOT floating my boat

I lifted her out, took a photo and then popped her under some damp leaves. Later I saw her under the outlet pipe for the tank, having a shower.

An amphibian in the hand...

Salamander stroll

The Salamanders are back.

Baby, I'm on fire

The Fire Salamanders with the perfect double-barrelled name Salamandra salamandra, are migrating to their winter hibernation spots. That means they cross the track near the Croft, and yesterday I drove past (and hopefully not over) four salamanders on the way home. I had to move the Salamander in the photo because she was strolling across the track and would have been squished under my wheels.

I love the colours but also the signals that they give - of impending cold and of a healthy ecosystem; they won't live in areas that are polluted or unclean.