Salamanders, Salamanders and more Salamanders

On April 7th, 2020 my dad and I had a plan to go Salamander hunting in the evening (not the violent kind).  We were going to go to the county of Halton Hills. This would be mine and my brother Jackson's third time seeing them and my little sister Eloise's first time.

Of course in a crazy time like this (Covid 19 pandemic) we made a plan that if anyone was there we would go home, but, if there was no one there we would stay. We headed out at 7:30PM.

It looked like it was perfect weather with a nice amount of rain falling and some thick mist that would keep the Salamanders moist for the trip to the creek to mate. When we were getting close to the place we crossed our fingers that no one would be there.

Luck was on our side because when we got there no one was there, or it could have been the fact that it was pouring rain.  It was 8:50PM when we got there, and we decided to wait for the rain and lightning to pass.

The first Spotted Salamander we found was when we got to the rocky and leafy part of the trail and in same spot we found another one.  On the other side of the trail there was a Unisexual Mole Salamander. Then when I got my camera out to take some pictures of the Salamanders it said on the screen "No Memory Card Present" then I just remembered that I had left my memory card back home. I told my dad this news and he said I could have his for a bit. So I used his memory card to take some photos. Thanks Dad!

Unisexual Mole Salamander- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:10PM

Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:10PM

 The rain was still falling a bit so I got some pictures with rain drops on it.

Then after that we got to the the board walk and started seeing more Salamanders! I took better pictures since the rain was not falling a bit, and all the Salamanders we were seeing was great!

Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:30PM

Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:30PM

When we got down on the board walk we spotted an Eastern Newt. You could also hear thousands and thousands of Spring Peepers!

When we were going to the boardwalk towards a small creek my sister (that was having a blast) said "Frog!! I found a frog!" so we quickly hurried over and saw that she found a nice looking Spring Peeper!

Spring Peeper-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:30PM

If you sometimes have trouble telling the difference between the Spring Peeper and Chorus Frog (Western or Boreal), just ook at the back and if you see a pattern that looks like an X that means it is a Spring Peeper and the Chorus Frogs have lines not in the shape of a X.

Spring Peeper-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:30PM

After that we got to the creek and we were amazed by what we saw!

Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:40PM

There was about fifty or sixty of them in that small spot and it was spectacular!

Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:40PM

Then we went on and got some more good photos

  Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:50PM

 Spotted Salamander-- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:50PM

    We saw another Unisexual Mole Salamander but this time you could see faint blue spots.

Unisexual Mole Salamander- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 9:40PM

It is  sometimes very hard to tell Unisexual Mole Salamanders and Jefferson Salamanders apart. Unisexual Mole Salamanders are a cross between a Blue-spotted Salamander and a Jefferson Salamander and adult Unisexual Mole Salamanders look a lot like normal Jefferson Salamanders.  Since they inter-breed a lot there is more often a Unisexual Mole Salamanders than real Jefferson Salamanders and the only way to make a full ID is do get a DNA sample.

Then we turned back and got on the board walk and were going to head home but we spotted another Eastern Newt and stopped to look at it. When we were looking the newt I glanced around hoping to find one of the Spring Peepers out of the many we were hearing. I looked around and sure enough I found one.


I searched at another spot and found one again but neither of those times did I get a good photo of one.

Spring Peeper- Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 10:10PM

When I was done taking pictures of the Spring Peepers I headed back to my family and then when I got there my dad and I saw a Spotted Salamander with orange spots on it's head.

Spotted Salamander (orange spots on head) - Halton Hills, Ontario, April 7, 2020 10:10PM

Then it was time to go. We got to the car, put hand sanitizer on and hit the road.