Dawn, Jacquie and I spent 3 days together in Oregon recently. As I write this, the two of them are still traveling in Washington. They might have more photos to add when they get back to civilization.
These pictures give some idea how beautiful the area was.
The first herp find of the trip was a small garter snake.
We saw very few Taricha. One, to be exact. It was found in water in a pool beside a stream. Terrestrial habitats were not very wet, so evidently they weren't out on land much. Oddly, this one had only 3 legs. The missing leg was completely missing, no sign of any scar or injury.
The most abundant species we found were aquatic Dicamptodon. We found every size, from an inch up to about 8 inches in size. All had gills.
The other very abundant species was tailed frogs, which were seen among the rocks alongside the streams. Jacquie found a lot of these; or rather they seemed to find her!
We also saw a couple of Rhyacotriton, mostly in the smaller streams.
This was a typical stream for Rhyacotriton.
We also found just one of each of Ensatina and Plethodon vehiculum (western redback). The redback was tiny, about 2 inches total.
Dawn found this guy in a puddle in a mostly dried-up creekbed (no water flowing). We initially thought it was Aneides ferreus, but looking again at the photos, and thinking about the habitat, I'm thinking it was a large specimen of Rhyacotriton.
Finally, here are my favorite photos of my traveling companions. Dawn, happily up to her knees in cold water. And Jacquie admiring the very first wild caudate that she ever found (she's from Australia, so she got a late start).
These pictures give some idea how beautiful the area was.
The first herp find of the trip was a small garter snake.
We saw very few Taricha. One, to be exact. It was found in water in a pool beside a stream. Terrestrial habitats were not very wet, so evidently they weren't out on land much. Oddly, this one had only 3 legs. The missing leg was completely missing, no sign of any scar or injury.
The most abundant species we found were aquatic Dicamptodon. We found every size, from an inch up to about 8 inches in size. All had gills.
The other very abundant species was tailed frogs, which were seen among the rocks alongside the streams. Jacquie found a lot of these; or rather they seemed to find her!
We also saw a couple of Rhyacotriton, mostly in the smaller streams.
This was a typical stream for Rhyacotriton.
We also found just one of each of Ensatina and Plethodon vehiculum (western redback). The redback was tiny, about 2 inches total.
Dawn found this guy in a puddle in a mostly dried-up creekbed (no water flowing). We initially thought it was Aneides ferreus, but looking again at the photos, and thinking about the habitat, I'm thinking it was a large specimen of Rhyacotriton.
Finally, here are my favorite photos of my traveling companions. Dawn, happily up to her knees in cold water. And Jacquie admiring the very first wild caudate that she ever found (she's from Australia, so she got a late start).