The Great Salamander Race -150 Posts!

I've been about as busy as I've ever been in my life.  Thus, I fled to nature on multiple occasions.  I've visited the LLCC Bird Banding Station at multiple occasions, and spotted the resident Tree Swallows taking over the bluebird boxes as usual.

I decided, in a two-hour gap between classes, to dart over to Lick Creek Wildlife Area and find a salamander.  This proved to be a trek.  I saw several blooming White Trout Lilies, among the huge masses of their leaves.

Spring Beauties were just opening at the time (this post is quite delayed!).

Hundreds of Blue-winged Teal flew in and out of the marshlands, hiding almost perfectly in the flooded pockets of water.

Here, you can see two Blue-winged Teal with two Mallards in front.  The Mallards are much less afraid of people- and almost twice the size! of the teal.

A few Swamp Sparrows watched me as I flipped logs for salamanders.

Success!  A nicely marked Smallmouth Salamander is my first smallmouth of the year.  I'm hoping for a few more salamanders this year, but I'll settle for what I can.

I even got a habitat shot of the salamander.  It acted like one of those kids where if it can't see you, you can't see it.  I then put it back under its log and proceeded to nearly step on a nearby Garter Snake, sunning itself in the marsh.

Just after class, I decided to drive around the lake a bit.  Only a few of the Double-crested Cormorants still linger on Lake Springfield, but there were hundreds back when this photo was taken. They turn the lake islands white with their guano (yes, that's poop).

Anyway, I'm going to try something new with this post- no scientific names.  They really slow me down when I go to write them, and as I've got a lot of posts coming up, I'll omit the scientific names unless I have to use them.  It was a fun idea, but it's becoming useless anymore.