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The weather has turned. It has turned late, but it has turned. For days, herring have been filtering in. The numbers aren't exceptional, but they are there. the number of large stripers following them up the tributaries has been minimal so far, but holdover schoolies have joined the party even though most of them are not nearly big enough to eat a herring. The nights were slow early in the week. Herring were there, some stripers were there, but for us, the bite was not. Prey and predators had converged but there is a level of biomass that it takes to get full mayhem and this was not it.
On Wednesday night the conditions aligned for convergence, but not on the tidal freshwater rivers, on small woodland ponds and vernal pools. The animals converging on these bodies of water are amphibians; frogs, toads, and salamanders. Movers in the night, animals that need things dark and more than a little bit damp. This was the perfect night, the perfect conditions, and I got to be witness to one of the most remarkable spectacles of nature has to offer here in the Northeast. The amphibian migration.
The most exciting encounter of the night was a pair of marbled salamaders. These animals, beyond being very handsomely colored and impressive (as salamanders go) with their short stocky build, are an uncommon species to bump into on a rainy spring night. These guys don't march to the vernal pools in the spring to breed like spotted salamanders do. They breed in the fall when those pools are just about dry, leaving fertilized egg clusters in the moist dark spaces under logs or leaves or bark. It has been a long time since I saw a marbled salamander, and when I saw the first of this pair my eyes lit up like they did the first time I rolled a rock and saw one peering up at me, wondering why it was so bright all of a sudden all those years ago.
On Wednesday night the conditions aligned for convergence, but not on the tidal freshwater rivers, on small woodland ponds and vernal pools. The animals converging on these bodies of water are amphibians; frogs, toads, and salamanders. Movers in the night, animals that need things dark and more than a little bit damp. This was the perfect night, the perfect conditions, and I got to be witness to one of the most remarkable spectacles of nature has to offer here in the Northeast. The amphibian migration.
The most exciting encounter of the night was a pair of marbled salamaders. These animals, beyond being very handsomely colored and impressive (as salamanders go) with their short stocky build, are an uncommon species to bump into on a rainy spring night. These guys don't march to the vernal pools in the spring to breed like spotted salamanders do. They breed in the fall when those pools are just about dry, leaving fertilized egg clusters in the moist dark spaces under logs or leaves or bark. It has been a long time since I saw a marbled salamander, and when I saw the first of this pair my eyes lit up like they did the first time I rolled a rock and saw one peering up at me, wondering why it was so bright all of a sudden all those years ago.
I sit here in front of my computer most days feeling the pressure of the modern world trying to convince me I need to grow up. Life is too fast paced now. If we don't take every chance we get to be a kid again, to chase a grasshopper, catch a fish, observe a salamander crossing the trail on a rainy night, that's when society has failed.
Go experience a migration. The convergence is happening right now,
and it is spectacular!
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