R
roger
Guest
Hi, I'm new on the forum so I thought my first post should be a happy one. Winter is finally waning up here in New York, so my girlfriend and I decided to hike up to the local vernal ponds in Thacher State Park near Albany just this past Saturday 03/27. We were actually hoping to see some yellow spotted salamanders in the breeding ponds, but we could not find any. We were trudging through mud and snow a bit disappointed when we spotted a red eft making his way through the wet leaves! We were amazed to see one so early and with some large patches of snow still on the ground. I picked the little guy up and he was a bit cold, but all in all a healthy specimen. When we set him back on the ground he went off on his merry way! Needless to say we will be up there again this coming Saturday with our eyes scanning the leaf litter. We are expecting a couple of days of rain and we hope the newts will be encouraged to come out.