Blue Jay Barrens

My house in Southern Ohio sits atop a small cellar that was part of an old farm house constructed in 1875.  A drain pipe runs from the cellar to a point near a seasonal pond in front of the house.  During the wet season, a seasonal spring emerges from the brick in one corner of the cellar and flows across the floor to the drain.  For some reason, beginning just a couple of years ago, salamanders have been coming up the drain and making themselves at home in the cellar.  Here are a few species that wandered in this past winter and spring.

Jefferson Salamander – This species is the first to arrive at the pond during the breeding season.  They sometimes lay their eggs as early as December.

Streamside Salamander – This uncommon salamander is almost identical in appearance to the Smallmouth Salamander.  The main difference between the two species is in the location and method of laying eggs.  Smallmouth Salamanders breed in still pools and deposit multiple eggs in a jelly-like mass.  Streamside Salamanders breed in small headwater streams or pools and deposit their eggs singly, but in close proximity so as to form a grouping of several eggs, beneath rocks, logs, leaves or other flat bottomed debris. Streamside Salamanders begin their breeding activities very soon after the Jeffersons.

Red-Spotted Newt – Adults of this species are typically found in permanent bodies of water, but they are also able to survive in seasonal pools that are dry during the summer and early fall.

Southern Two-Lined Salamander – I don’t normally find this species far from rocky creeks.  The instinct to disperse is present to some degree in all animals.  When conditions are right, the animal just takes off and travels.  Some die and some colonize new areas.  This individual may have been in dispersal mode.

Marbled Salamander – This species lays its eggs in the fall in locations that will contain water when the end of year rains begin.  Once inundated, the eggs hatch.  Adults commonly wander during late winter and spring rains.  I’ve lived here for 34 years, but it was just two years ago that I saw my first Marbled Salamander.  That individual was found in my cellar.  Even though I’ve seen this species each year since, all individuals have been found in my cellar.  I’ve yet to encounter one outdoors.

On warm days, I gather up the visitors and release them outdoors.  There is an old brush pile just upstream of the pond that seems to me to be an ideal release point.

Last night I spotted several small salamander larvae moving about in the water.

Using a fine meshed aquarium net, I scooped one out for closer examination.  The larva may look large in the photo, but it is actually only about an inch and a half total length.  The mesh of that net has 16 openings per lineal inch.  Beside the larva is a freshwater amphipod.

From the net, I dropped the larva into a glass jar for observation.  Identifying characteristics are poorly developed in a specimen this young, but there is no doubt that this is the larva of a Red-spotted Newt.  Red-spotted newts have a definite spring breeding season, but also seem to be opportunistic breeders throughout the year.  Breeding behavior is common in the water garden during summer and early fall, especially following a heavy rain.  This individual probably hatched from an egg deposited soon after the late October rain.  Eggs typically take three to five weeks to hatch, and warm water would have allowed hatching to occur closer to the three week mark.  I estimate this larva to be about a month old, so it still has four or five months to go before beginning a terrestrial life style.

As the larva develops, the head will become smaller in relation to the body and will develop more of a taper towards the snout.

The hind legs are just buds.  They will grow steadily over the next couple of months.

The beginnings of the distinctive dark eye stripe is just now forming between the eye and mouth.  By the time salamander larvae appear in the pond, the newt larvae will be formidable predators.

The Blue Jay Barrens Water Garden will be celebrating its 15 year anniversary this summer.  On August 4, 2000 I installed a liner into the completed excavation and diverted runoff from downspouts in the front of the house to the leak proof pool area.  Two days later, a light rain put an inch of water in the bottom of the pool, and that night, treefrogs deposited several egg clusters.  Since then life in the pool has been in a state of constant change.  Each year is a new experience with new players, both plant and animal, finding a place in this tiny pool.  Most conspicuous in the pool these last few years has been a growing number of predators that feed on the masses of small animals attracted to a permanent body of water.

All plants in the Water Garden are native to this area, with the exception of the Water Lilies.  I’ve had a desire for a pool of Water Lilies for most of my conscious life, so I bought some tubers, planted them in weighted tubs and put them into the Water Garden.  After a couple of years, the Water Lily root mass grew so large that it floated the pots to the surface.  My thought was to transplant the tubers into larger pots with heavier weights, but when I hauled the plants out of the water I found that the lily roots had completely enveloped the pots.  I settled for adding more weight by strapping bricks around the outside of the root mass.  This worked for a couple more years, then up came the root masses with all of my bricks neatly hidden inside.  At that point I decided to just leave the lilies alone.  Now the root masses rise to the surface each summer with the growth of new roots and then sink again in the fall as the roots die back.  Islands created by the root masses are becoming populated with a variety of aquatic plants that don’t mind a winter long emersion.

In last few days there has been a mass emergence of damselflies from the pool.  The shed skin of the aquatic nympth is left behind by the newly emerged adult form.

Both the aquatic and adult forms of damselfly are predators.  Adults capture and consume small flying insects, while the aquatic nymphs feed on insects, tadpoles, fish, worms and anything else small enough to be captured and held.

Adults seem to emerge most often under the cover of darkness.  In the morning, newly emerged individuals can be found resting on stable structures near the water.  It takes a while for the wings and exoskeleton to harden, and for the full coloration of the adult to develop.

Unlike most other damselflies, Spreadwing Damselflies hold their wings slightly apart.  These damselflies are slightly larger than the average.

This is one of the Bluet Damselflies.  This is a small, delicate Damselfly that is quite common here at Blue Jay Barrens.

Male and female bluets join in tandem for mating and egg laying.  This pair is insuring a supply of Damselflies will be around next year.

Aquatic plants growing in pots set on a shallow shelf at the edge of the Water Garden have long since escaped confinement and found their own anchorage.  A tangle of rush stalks and other dead vegetation give a foundation for an assortment of water loving vegetation.  Some were planted when the Water Garden was first filled, but most have arrived by more natural means.

The thick vegetation may be a place of safety for some, but it also harbors a healthy population of predators.  These young spiders have just recently emerged from heir silken egg sack.

Most of these will fall to larger predators or relocate far distant from here, but several will stay and grow to adulthood in the lush vegetation of the Water Garden.

Red-spotted Newts are the top of the line submerged predator.  They can detect the slightest movement and will investigate any creature their own size or smaller.  If they can fit it in their mouths, they will eat it.  I don’t believe you can stuff a newt so full that it would stop trying to eat more.  Males like this one are continually cruising the pool looking for food and for breeding opportunities.

Female newts typically remain more hidden, but they are still alert for anything that may be food.

When newly hatched, salamander larvae are heavily preyed upon by the newts.  As the salamanders  grow, they become a predator as efficient as the newt.  The difference between the two is that the salamander only spends a portion of its life in the pool.  It will soon mature into a land dwelling form and take off for a more terrestrial lifestyle.

Bullfrogs are probably the most aggressive above water predators in the Water Garden.  As long as he can avoid the notice of Minks, Raccoons and Herons, this guy should have no problems.  Anything smaller than this guy’s mouth is in danger of being eaten.  Bullfrogs are typically just temporary visitors and after a few weeks will move on to new hunting grounds.  If it ever rains here again, this frog will probably move on.

Adult Green Frogs have a chance of competing against a large Bullfrog, but those that have just recently transformed from the tadpole stage are just Bullfrog food.  This young frog has just lost the last of its tail stub and is watching for a flying insect to come within grabbing distance.

Gray Treefrogs have a tough time competing in a permanent pool.  Predators make quick work of the newly hatched tadpoles and the adult frogs are in danger of becoming a Bullfrog meal.

Northern Water Snakes will also make a meal of tadpoles and frogs.  There are at least two mature water snakes now living in the Water Garden.  They arrived here as youngsters several years ago and have been growing steadily since.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the Water Garden has become a home for top level predators.  That is why I’ve initiated other projects to provide temporary pools to those aquatic creatures that cannot deal with a high predator load.  I’ll just keep enjoying the Water Garden and see what comes next.

The bulk of salamander and Wood Frog egg laying at Blue Jay Barrens occurred between March 13 and March 17.  In the two weeks since egg laying began, air temperatures have ranged from a low of 10^oF to 75^oF.  Water temperature has not suffered such wild fluctuations, due to the constant inflow of relatively warm spring water.  Despite these varying conditions, development of salamander eggs is progressing at a rapid pace.

Several of the Jefferson Salamander egg clusters show eggs with white colored centers.  This usually indicates the presence of fungus feeding on unfertilized and damaged eggs.

There are still plenty of live embryos in these masses, so there should be no shortage of larvae hatching into the pond.

Jefferson Salamanders concentrated their egg laying efforts on sticks floating in the pond.  Several large sticks are completely covered with Jefferson egg masses.  Streamside Salamanders made heavy use of the hard surface structure I placed in the pond for their use.

The structure was composed of a mixture of clay drainage tiles, bricks, rocks, and boards.  My thought was to see if the salamanders preferred one substrate over another.

Substrate type didn’t seem to matter.  There were eggs everywhere.

Once the lower surfaces were covered with eggs, the salamanders began attaching eggs wherever they could find a hard surface.  Next year I will try placing the material so there are more spaces between the various components.

Wood Frog egg masses are beginning to lose their cohesiveness and spread across the water surface.

Frog tadpoles are becoming free swimming and detaching from the egg masses.

Development of the eggs on the outside of this mass seems to be several days behind those eggs in the center.

Eggs in the top of the mass are most susceptible to damage from weather conditions.  Ice formed over the top of these eggs several times during the past two weeks.  Several embryos seem to have been killed from freeze damage.  Larvae hatching from that top layer of eggs also seem to have a tough time working their way out to open water.  Even so, plenty of live tadpoles will result from this hatching.

Attracted by the movement of hatching tadpoles, one of the breeding pond’s super predators moves in to investigate this newly available food source.  Red-spotted Newts will take their toll on the young salamander and frog larvae.  They can’t eat them all, even though they will try.  Plenty of young salamanders and frogs will live to add their efforts to future annual breeding activities.