Trying To Do What's Right

 Since our first springtime in our woods we have been finding salamander egg masses in the small pond in early spring. I think the first year we found them on April first, and it has been around that time the other years, until last year it was on this date. The small pond is a vernal pool, or at least seasonal; it is filled by rain and some runoff from a spring in the cliff above it. It is quite a small pond, and it dries up by the end of spring, or sooner if there isn't a lot of snow or rain. The first year we found egg masses, 2020, some of the eggs hatched, but the pond dried up before they could all hatch, and probably way before the ones that did hatch were ready to live life out of the water. The next couple of years the pond dried up way before any of the eggs had a chance to hatch. Now, when I first found eggs there I looked on the internet to find out what kind of eggs they were, and found that they were probably spotted salamanders. Then I looked up what I could find out about spotted salamanders; I read that they are mostly a subterranean species, and that they come out all together one night per year to mate in the same pond where they were hatched, and have a life-span of 12 years. Now, I don't know how accurate any of this information is; the internet can't really be trusted. But I became worried about the spotted salamanders that were mating in the small pond, because for three years in a row, few, if any, eggs were hatching, let alone maturing into adult salamanders. And that was just the years I knew about–I have no idea what was happening in the woods before fall of 2019, though I lived on the edge of the woods, they were a complete mystery to me until we bought them and started exploring. Last year, 2023, on this date I spotted two egg masses in the small pond, when in other years there were around ten or so. I thought that the salamanders were dying out without successfully reproducing. Eventually I did see more egg masses in the small pond, but the small pond got smaller and smaller. We had very little snow that winter, and not much rain in the spring. Eventually I made a decision, which I agonized over: I collected all of the egg masses when the small pond was down to just a muddy spot, and moved them all to the big pond. The big pond is about 50 feet away, and though we call it the big pond it is also not very big. But it is much bigger than the small pond. Also a vernal pool, it too dries up after the spring (or during), but it lasts longer, because it is bigger. We had never seen salamander eggs in the big pond. We had seen frogs' eggs, and tadpoles, but never salamander eggs. I didn't know if the big pond was not appropriate for salamanders, or if the eggs would just get eaten there, or if it would be just a bad thing for me to move the eggs somewhere where there were no salamander eggs. But if I left them in the small pond that was no longer a pond they would all die. If I moved them, I thought maybe they had a chance. In the end, I know at least some of the eggs hatched, but the big pond dried up much too soon, so far as I could tell, for them to mature to the point where they could live out of the water. Also, the big pond was full of frog tadpoles–big ones, which were probably happy to dine on any salamander larvae that emerged. I didn't know if I had done the right thing, but even if all of the salamanders got eaten, they weren't any worse off than they would have been in the small pond. 

Now, it's a year later. I have not seen any salamander egg masses in the small pond. But here's what's in the big pond:

Not completely sure these are salamander eggs. Usually the egg masses are a more cohesive, round blob. (If you are afraid of spiders, ignore the one walking on the water in this picture).

This definitely looks like a salamander egg mass, but it's smaller than ones I have seen before (they can be white like this, or clear like the ones above and below). And I can see the individual egg cells, but there don't appear to be anything in them. Unfortunately, my boots leak, so I can't walk out into the pond to get a better look.

We actually spotted these last week, but today was the first day I had a chance to bring my camera out into the woods to get pictures. Since my boots leak, I needed to use the zoom lens, and these pictures were taken as I teetered precariously on a rock on the edge of the pond.

I am still not sure I did the right thing in moving the egg masses last year, I am just trying to do my best to preserve the biodiversity in our woods. But questions remain: are all of those even salamander egg masses? Is the white one unfertilized eggs? Did enough salamanders survive to reproduce in this pond? 

I don't know. Maybe time will tell. But so far, at least, there are no salamander eggs in the small pond this year. I don't think it's because I moved them all to the big pond last year, given that they have a long enough lifespan that there could be/should be salamanders still going to the small pond to mate, unless it has been at least 12 years that the pond has been drying up too soon.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Weevil. I don't know what kind. It was in a bit of a hurry to climb this tree. Since I didn't have my macro lens, because I had taken the camera out to take pictures of the eggs in the pond, this was as close as I could get.

We had a lot of rain on Saturday, so the small pond is bigger than usual, and had flooded over its usual banks. There were lots of water striders on it today:

Winter firefly. Also rushing to climb a tree. 

This evening I was sitting at my computer, writing this blog post, when I heard a noise outside, and thought that raccoons were trying to get into the garbage cans again, so I went outside with my flashlight...

It was not a raccoon. I was happy to see this opossum, especially as it rooted around in the leaf litter on the lawn, hopefully finding ticks to eat, although it was not especially thrilled to see me.