Some recent NJ Herptiles

[NJSnakeMan]

I visited this new spot i mentioned earlier about 3 times now. Here are my reports.
Day1
- 1 rough green snake (lifer)
Day 2
- 8 northern water snakes
- 1 eastern garter snake
- 1 common snapping turtle
- 2 e.box turtles
- + sliders, redbellys, painted turtles
- + green frogs and bullfrogs
Day 3
- Another rough green snake
- Marbled Salamander (lifer)
- Vernal pool, dried up right now. Possibily where the marbled sals are breeding.

I attached some pics from photobucket, hope you enjoy!
The first rough green snake

The second rough green snake

Box turtle # 2

Both of the box turtles

Marbled Salamander found about 5-10 yards from the vernal pool

Garter attacking camera lens

Snapper ready to bite my boot

and lastly, good pic of a bullfrog

Thanks, i'll keep you all updated.
Brandon

 

[uuglypher]

I visited this new spot i mentioned earlier about 3 times now. Here are my reports.

Nice report! As usual, your photographs are great. The marbled salamander and bullfrog shots are guar-ohn-damn-teed prize-winners!

Dave

 

[NJSnakeMan]

Thanks Dave! About the marbled salamander- the males generally have white crossbands, where in the females they tend to be a more grayish dusky looking color...? Wanted to know whether this is reliable enough to determine it's sex. I want to record the ammount of males VS females i find in this general area.

 

[woodjin]

Great shots. I like that you got the garter snake attacking the lens. I saw a small black rat snake yesterday. I got a photo but have yet to load it up. Won't be as good as your photos.

Jeff

 

[uuglypher]

Thanks Dave! About the marbled salamander- the males generally have white crossbands, where in the females they tend to be a more grayish dusky looking color...? Wanted to know whether this is reliable enough to determine it's sex. I want to record the ammount of males VS females i find in this general area.

Sorry, Brandon,

I'm clueless as to sexual dimorphism in marbled salamanders - And when I find my next one in the Pine Barrens, it'll be my FIRST!

I'm recalling something weird (from a conversation with Dr. Ed Bellis of the Zoology Dept. at Penn State in the summer of '61) about the breeding biology of the marbled. Don't they breed in the fall? Don't the other Ambystoma spp. breed in the spring? When do the females lay eggs? And when do the eggs hatch into tadpoles/larvae? Do they mate in the fall and does the female retain sperm or zygotes until she lays eggs in spring? I know that just one insemination by natural mating can provide a female snake (of at least some species) with enough sperm for several year's worth of fertile eggs, but don't know if the same is true of salamanders. I suppose I'll eventually google the topic, but at the moment there are about a hundred other topics on my "too google" list...
Anybody out there up on this?

Dave

 

[uuglypher]

I visited this new spot i mentioned earlier about 3 times now. Here are my reports.

Hey Brandon-

I know I sound like a broken record about your exceptional pics of herps, so... might I be so presumptious as to offer a modest suggestion?

That really good shot of the box turtle could have been an exceptionally good one if you had used a polarizing lens to eliminate or reduce the distracting glare / reflections off the shell and top of the turtle's head.
Just a thought. Keep up the good work!

Dave

 

[dragoncjo]

Nice pics, I like the box turtles always glad when people find boxies since they in my opinion will be endangered in new jersey in the next couple decades. Marbled salamander is awesome, I'm not a salamander guy but that one is cool looking.

 

[NJSnakeMan]

I visited this new spot i mentioned earlier about 3 times now. Here are my reports.

Hey Brandon-

I know I sound like a broken record about your exceptional pics of herps, so... might I be so presumptious as to offer a modest suggestion?

That really good shot of the box turtle could have been an exceptionally good one if you had used a polarizing lens to eliminate or reduce the distracting glare / reflections off the shell and top of the turtle's head.
Just a thought. Keep up the good work!

Dave

Thanks for the tip- why the garter, snapper and box turtle pics came out a bit fuzzy is my batteries kept dying out on me (alkalines) with my macro on. I bought a pack of energizer e2 titaniums for my camera- has anyone used these and do they preform like luthiums?

 

[Bobbleton]

Don't they breed in the fall? Don't the other Ambystoma spp. breed in the spring? When do the females lay eggs? And when do the eggs hatch into tadpoles/larvae? Do they mate in the fall and does the female retain sperm or zygotes until she lays eggs in spring? I know that just one insemination by natural mating can provide a female snake (of at least some species) with enough sperm for several year's worth of fertile eggs, but don't know if the same is true of salamanders.
Dave

Awesome finds, Brandon. Kick ass.

Dave--
They do breed in the fall (sometimes late summer). Their breeding habits are super-cool because they actually lay eggs in the leaf litter right on the water-line of (empty) vernal pools. The eggs usually won't hatch unless the pool is totally full . . . which is usually in spring. This ensures they won't hatch to a pool that may dry out, and it gives them a jump on the other vernal pool breeders. By the time most other amphibian eggs are laid (or larvae are hatched), the larval marbleds are already big enough to easily prey on them.

I don't know a ton about salamanders, but yeah . . . most other ambystomids breed in very early spring. The only other exception (besides marbled) are tiger salamanders . . . they usually breed in january--also presumably to get a jump on their very extensive metamorphosis. I'm not sure about the others, but tiger sallys usually spend around 6 months in those "temporary" pools before they're ready to crawl out.

I've been trying to find an adult marbled (and tiger) for a few years now . . . a task i apparantly suck at. Although now that Bradon's proven the exact time of year (and relative temperature) they prefer . . i might have a chance.

-Bob

 

[NJSnakeMan]

Yup. He's absolutely right. It's about 60 degress, saturday morning, and raining. Maybe this is good salamander breeding weather??? Well, i'll send in the report later on tonight.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/species/marbled_salamander.pdf

 

[uuglypher]

Yup. He's absolutely right. It's about 60 degress, saturday morning, and raining. Maybe this is good salamander breeding weather??? Well, i'll send in the report later on tonight.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/species/marbled_salamander.pdf

Brandon and Bob (...bleton)-
Thanks for the additional info and the link to the NJ site on the marbled sal.
Ain't life / the world / all of metaphorical "creation"/ the Cosmos fascinatin'?

Dave

 

[NJSnakeMan]

Got back an hour ago- around two. rain rain rain, and more rain.

I did find another marbled salamander! This time a female, and she was in a totally different location. What i noticed is you can actually see the hole on the side of the rock where the salamander started to dig down into the dirt. Cool, huh?

I also did find another lifer- ground skink. I've never found one before so it was pretty cool. I'll have pics posted later on tonight.

 

[NJSnakeMan]

I got some really crappy shots today- but here they are.
The lifer for me- ground skink

And the female Marbled Salamander

I might just head out again tomorow morning. Looks like the last half-decent day for herping. It's supose to be 64 and sunny.

 

[woodjin]

Very interesting!! Is that rock a piece of concrete? I'm asking 'cause rocks are so uncommon in barrens, except for bog iron and sandstone. Then again, the salamander is so small I guess that could be a stone sized rock.

Jeff

 

[NJSnakeMan]

Yep, that's concrete. There were also a lot of boards piled up that i layed out for snakes next year. Hopefully i'll get a snake or two out of them. Anyways, i went out again for a very little, found another female marbled salamander.