Glad to hear things are working out in your garden. I've seen salamanders here on rare occasions, but never had them stick around for long as far as I could tell. I wouldn't have thought "friendly" would apply, but that's great.

Dave-If you are talking about Gum Swamp, we went there, but it was mostly dried up and the few logs that I flipped produced nothing. I'm sure there were better areas in Cades Cove, but we spent so much time in traffic we didn't have time to check them out. Dan-The one I called a pigmy was very small (only about an 1.5in) and I thought Ocoees had a straight line down their backs not wavy like this one. I found a couple of pigmys that were obviously pigmys (typical yellow chevrons) but then I found some small ones like this that just had a wavy red or yellow line down the back. I knew the one below the Jordan's was some type of dusky, because of the line from its eye to jaw. I guess I just didn't know that imitators got that big. Thanks for the ID. Can anybody tell me what the first 5 dusky pics are? I imagine they are probably a mix of Ocoees, imitators, and Santeetlahs (because of the high elevation).

After google- I believe you are correct, thanks. Eumeces fasciatus - Young have a bright blue tail while adult males often loose their stripes and develop reddish or orange coloration on the head. Here is a link that might be useful: More info

Amazingly...those do look like salamander eggs...or frog eggs...really weird...What state are you in? Do you have any other information you can give us here? Any pics of the flowerpot? Do you have a patch of woods nearby? I'm very interested in hearing more about this ~Mike