I came back into town for the weekend, so I decided to do a little herping at one of my favorite places yesterday. I have found many different things in this area, but had the goal of finding a Ringed Salamander on this day. I knew of a few different ponds in the area but had never really checked them out before, except during the spring, when I found a few Spotted Salamanders at one of the sites. Yesterday, I looked around at a new pond though. It didn't take very long to find my first ever Ringed Salamander hiding under a log between a few pieces of bark! I was very excited to lift the log and see its bright yellow and white rings! By the time I had walked around the whole pond I had found a total of 5 of these beautiful salamanders, many eggs, and larvae also! I also found 3 dead ones, is this common in salamander breeding sites? Also seen at this spot was 4 Central Newts, many tadpoles, and many Blanchard's Cricket Frogs.

It was also a goal of mine to find a Timber Rattlesnake den site at the same area, but in a different spot. I had found this spot over the summer in early August and it looked perfect for Timbers. There are bluffs with forest all around them. The ground is also very rocky in the general area. I had found horridus in the area before and thought that maybe this was where they stayed for the winter. During that day in August I had found some Timber shed along the bluffs, which I now have here at my house. I spent a few hours at this location yesterday but didn't find any rattlesnakes. Although it was sunny yesterday, I guess it was just too cold and maybe a little too late in the year. I ended up finding a Yellowbelly Racer, a large Slimy Salamander, Ground Skink, and many Fence Lizards at this spot yesterday.

Sorry, I have no pics to post right now, but I'll try to post them later. Hope everyone didn't mind reading a bit!