Photo by D. Sillman
Last Saturday was forecast to be warm (70 degrees here in Apollo) and only “iffy” rainy, so we decided to schedule out annual Spring trip to Ohiopyle with Rob and Michele Bridges to check out the vernal pools and the emerging and reproducing wood frogs (Rana sylvatica). We planned to meet at the Ohiopyle train station at noon, so we had a little time to get some work done at home before we made the hour and a quarter drive to Ohiopyle.
One of the “home tasks” I needed to accomplish was cleaning out the long drain at the bottom of my driveway just outside my garage door. My garage is under my house and when it rains my driveway turns into a whitewater stream with all of the surface water from my street and from my across-the-street’s neighbor’s uphill driveway. The deep drain at the bottom of my drive shunts all of that water out into my field. That drain, though, also regularly fills up with leaves, and, so, in anticipation of Spring storms, it needed to be cleaned out.
I lifted up the iron cover grate and shoveled out wet leaves and an inch or so of oozy sediment into my wheelbarrow. I saw a couple of large nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestris) in the ooze but left them in the mix. They would thrive out in one of my leaf piles. In the last shovel-full of leaves and odoriferous sediment, though, I was very surprised to pick up a very large (seven inches long), robust, dark colored salamander! I quickly put her (I am assuming that it was female because it was so large) back into the standing water of the drain and added some leaves to give her a place to burrow in and hide. She was a slimy salamander (Plethodon glutinosus) (pictured above), the same species we found last September under one of our new landscaping rocks that we had set above our reconstructed driveway wall (see Signs of Fall #5, October 6, 2016).
Slimy salamanders are well adapted to very transient pools of water. The female lays her eggs in the spring pool or puddle in clusters of four to twelve eggs. She then guards them until they hatch (which can take up to three months). The hatchlings, though, unlike most salamanders, emerge as fully terrestrial animals. They is no aquatic “tadpole” stage and, therefore, no need for the spring pool to persist while the larvae grow legs and lungs! The hatchlings of the slimy salamanders scramble up and out their birth pool immediately and head off to feed on tiny insects and other invertebrates. If they survive, they will then be able to reproduce in two of three years.
I did not see any egg clusters while I was cleaning out the driveway drain (I even went through my wheelbarrow of wet leaves to make sure!). My hope is that Ms. Slimy will not be put off by my re-modeling of her nursery pool and will lay and watch over the next generation of these beautiful amphibians.
Photo by D. Sillman
Then Deborah and I drove down to Ohiopyle to meet Rob and Michele. Every Spring we walk the trail that wraps around Ferncliff Peninsula looking for vernal pools and especially for wood frogs. In late March 2013 we timed our visit perfectly and actually saw wood frogs blasting out of their hibernation burrows (they literally were flying up into the air like they were shot from a canon!) and splashing down into their vernal pools. That afternoon pools all over Ohiopyle were full of quacking wood frogs, eggs masses and vigorous frog mating! For the last couple of years, though, warm, dry spring weather has cut into the volume of the pools, and we have seen no adult wood frogs on our walks (although last year (2016) we did see egg masses and tadpoles in the rock pools along the river). All of the upland pools, though, were dry or choked with algae and sediment. This year’s late winter and early spring have been a roller coaster of rising and falling temperatures, but the lower than average snow cover and scanty spring rains didn’t hold much of a promise of surface water and frog pools, but you never know until you go and see for yourself.
We hiked along the Great Allegheny Passage Trail, crossed the river on the beautiful pedestrian bridge and then cut down off the trail to the rocky, riverbank. Along the trail great patches of colt’s foot (Tussilago farfara) (pictured above) were in bloom in the sunny spots in between the large boulders. This familiar, dandelion-like yellow flower is often one of the first blooming signs of spring, and its yellow color is a welcome contrast to the browns and grays we have seen all winter.
Photo by D. Sillman
We walked along the trail and found, up from the river’s edge, right at the base of the rocky cliffs, several pools of water that were alive with wood frogs! The larger females languidly floated near the pond edges and were surrounded by frantically darting, smaller males who were trying to check out as many females as possible. All of the frogs were “quacking” furiously! In the very center of the pool was a clump of dead leaves onto which several egg masses were attached. This was the pool in which we saw tadpoles last April, and it looks like it was once again an active spot
Photo by D. Sillman
for wood frog procreation. Rob saw a red-spotted salamander in an adjacent pool (an eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens)?).
This was a wonderful day for amphibians! Two different salamanders and dozens of wood frogs!
We continued on our walk but did not see any more amphibians. We hiked up onto the backbone of the peninsula on a trail that cut through dense stands of rhododendrons and hemlocks. The
Photo by D. Sillman
rhododendron bushes were covered with tightly closed flower buds. In a month this trail will be glorious with white rhododendron blooms! We hiked past the deer fence enclosure and saw the thick stands of tree seedlings growing in its protected space. This forest would look very differently if deer could be kept from eating all of the tree seedlings and saplings!
We got up to the top of the trail and found the pool areas that had been so active with frogs back in 2013. Unfortunately, they had very little water in them and were clogged with algae and debris. No frogs here at all! Something needs to be done to rehabilitate and protect these valuable pools!