Snow Dawgs (continued)


Trudging across the frozen tundra


Negotiating the riverbank


Bullfrog (Rana catesbiana)


Twolined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera)


A cave-dwelling cat burglar?

 

We ate breakfast at a truck-stop buffet, and when some of the guys called me Dad, the waitress picked up on it and called me Dad as well.  Thanks a lot, lady - and don't encourage these knuckleheads!

We headed out to Greg's place, to work along a creek and poke around in some caves.  The creek was iced over, and we carefully walked along the bank, stepping on snow-covered slabs of ice that creaked and groaned and occasionally gave way under the weight of some of us in the less-than-svelte group.  A small, rocky seep along the creek's edge provided us with a few amphibians.  I turned up a sleepy sub-adult Bullfrog under a large rock, while the other guys found a handful of Southern Twolined Salamanders and Northern Dusky Salamanders, both lifers for Justin.  Despite the cold weather, the salamanders appeared to be quite active and alert.  After pictures all of the critters were stowed back under their rocks, and we moved on.

We checked out several caves during the course of the day.  One cave had a long, tubular passage that led to a sink and further passages deep into the hillside.  We found no salamanders here, and the passage was covered with a jumble of sharp rocks.  I was the last man out, and was feeling my age and then some as I crawled over all the sharp objects.  The guys were amused by all of the grunts and groans issuing from the cavern, and were wondering if it was me or some cave bear that had been stirred from slumber.

Other caves yielded several Northern Duskies, a Cave Salamander, an interesting moth, spiders galore, and a couple bats that I couldn't identify.   I did a lot of caving and bat observing back in high school, but my ability to identify bat species is pretty rusty these days.   

next page                    back to index               previous page