[Guest]

Was hiking with my son and found this little guy near a stream bed.

 

[Rambler]

Very cool.

 

[joetrain]

Cool picture. Those must be good bass baits because I do fairly well using "creature" baits like that.
~JOE~

 

[catchafew]

Did you show your son how to Carolina rig it and fish it over the beds? :moresarcasm: Nice pics once again.

 

[Guest]

He he. Nope. I'd never hurt that little jewel.

 

[JustinCarf]

Your sons got a good eye! Nice find and pictures. Have you seen any more out n about?

I have only seen 1 salamander in the wild...well it was wandering around a building I worked at. :lol: slipped in under one of the doors. I forgot the species, I know I have written about it somewhere.

 

[Guest]

Yeah in the spring we normally hunt for them for fun and mainly find blue spotted (Cook) and the occasional mole salamander (DuPage). Once in a while we'll find an Eastern newt (Cook). I've only found one tiger (Kane) but it was by chance -- it was crossing a road.

When I was a kid, about 3 years old, my pops was in the crawlspace of our new home in Darien ... monkeying around with the sump pump. There were some spare bricks laying next to the foundation and I crawled over and started flipping them to see if any bugs were under them. To my surprise, there was a "monster" under them!!! It was a yellow and black salamander. It started wriggling and its sliminess and bright colors scared the shit out of me. I got out of there quick ... and crying!!!

 

[JustinCarf]

That's really awesome that you go out there just to look for them. I guess I would see them more if I were out hiking around looking for them. That story is great, and probably the reaction any kid would have. I know for sure I would have been freaked out, too....but I don't know about crying :lol: :lol: but then again you were only 3. :lol:

Here's a link to the one I found. Ioriginally thought it was a slimy salamander, just based on my google searches, but I had someone comment on it somewhere who seemed pretty into herping, and he identified it as an Eastern Tiger Salamander...is that correct, I have no idea, but I do know that guy know more than me on the subject from what I remember.
http://carfoutdoors.blogspot.com/2014/10/slimy-salamander.html

 

[Guest]

Yeah definitely a tiger and the same type I saw as a kid in the crawlspace!

The 'manders are typically holed up under rotting wood in dense forests around vernal pools.

 

[Rambler]

So sort of on topic - did anyone notice the huge numbers of baby toads in the woods last Spring? There were places in the woods near me where I had trouble not stepping on them.

And, Eric - kudos on "vernal pools". In my experience most folks don't know what those are.

 

[mikeyd]

Very cool. I used to catch tiger salamanders in the marsh behind my dad's house growing up in Wheaton. Your salamander looks slightly different than the ones I used to catch and more like the one in Carf's photo. Yours almost looks like an artificial lure, a blue or junebug color with silver fleck. Beautiful pictures!