Ohio's October herpetofauna

On the afternoon of Friday, October 5th, I left the suburbia of Southeast Michigan for the backcountry of the Buckeye State, mostly to find some caudates. I found myself in bliss as I crossed the Ohio border under the ever-welcoming signs on I-75. My first stop was to be somewhere in Lucas county (I cannot specify where) to try to find Blue-spots. The scenic and diverse spot yielded some P. cinereus, but no Ambystomids. After driving across US 6 to reach the North-Central region of Ohio, I tried a non-descript spot somewhere in Erie county rumored to have Marbled and Smallmouth sallies. The spot yielded over 40 Red-backs, and all the Marbled and Smallmouth had burrowed for the winter, as the previous night had a low of 34 degrees. After a brief visit to the Lake Erie shore, I headed south toward the Appalachian hill country of the Mohican area (Richland, Ashland, Knox, Holmes counties). The hill country along the back roads was beautiful, one picture is in the attachments of this. After seeing larval Gyrinophilus and Pseudotriton in addition to N2L and Northern Duskies, I saw a large Northern water snake. The stream was full of dead leaves, and the number of large, mossy rocks increased as I headed toward the spring. The water gathered under a large, mossy rock on the crest of the hill. With Gordon Lightfoot in the CD player, I headed west to a location that takes skill to find, in the scenic hills west of Mansfield. The spot had a grassy, mossy natural spring that looked like it was straight out of Ireland. The first rock in the icy water yielded two larval Pseudotritons. The next large boulder had the most beautiful salamander I have ever seen dwelling under it. It was a huge, bright strawberry red, Northern Red Salamander. I caught it after it crawled into a glass bottle. A picture is included in the attachments. I tried for another 20 minutes to find an adult Northern Spring, without success although I did find two Gyronophilus larvae, one that was quite distinctively a Spring Salamander. The spot yielded about 15 more Red larvae + young, and two N2Ls. Stnading in the water watching the red wiggle in the moss was like heaven on ice. For Ohio's reds and springs, October is a great month. It is no good for moles though.

This was very close to me, I'm about an hour from Cleveland.
Nice finds I'm surprised you didn't find any A. Maculatums, I find them under logs or inside of rotting wood this time of year.
Nice pics too!

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing!