Oneonta

Please excuse any typos/choppy writing. Today I worked an 8 hour shift at Petco only to go straight to the vet clinic for a few more hours of work. But I am determined to make this blog post even though I am afraid I am going to fall asleep on the keyboard.

So my husband and I turned 21 a few days ago (yes, we have the same birthday). So to celebrate, instead of going out and getting so drunk that we vomited all over the place, we decided to go on a little road (day) trip. Oh, don't get me wrong. We did drink on our birthday (we went on the trip the day after our birthday). I got to try my first drink in a bar. It was a Caribbean Cosmo (soo yummy). I also had a huckleberry lemon drop served in a glass made of ice. Mmmm! See? I told you I was going to be all over with this post ;)

Back to the main story...Oneonta Gorge is one of my favorite places to go looking for "snot lizards" (AKA salamanders) and other amphibians. It is just down the road from horsetail falls and the famous Multnomah Falls. It is well worth spending 8-hours in the car. Especially when your husband's company gives you a company vehicle and pays for gas :)

We started at the base of Horsetail Falls and hiked along a trail to Ponytail Falls. My legs (and entire body) were very sore from work, so I wasn't too happy about hiking up a steep trail. About halfway up, I stopped and sat down on a rock. When we were ready to resume our hike, my husband pointed out a little Northern Red-Legged frog sitting on the rock next to me. Here are a few pictures of the little guy.

So cute!

Me holding the frog. See my new haircut?

See why they call them red-legged frogs? He wasn't too happy with me in this picture.

Fortunatly, the trail leveled out pretty quickly. After a nice hike, we reached Ponytail Falls.

Behind the falls

 We found a ton of amphibians here. 2 Dunn's salamanders, at least 10 Torrent Salamanders, 2 larval giant salamanders (like Pig), and a bunch of red-legged frogs. Including this giant girl...

Remember that picture of me holding the cute little red-legged frog? Well here is a picture of me holding this monster.

For some reason, I have never seen a red-legged frog this big anywhere outside of the Oneonta area. She meowed at me when I picked her up! That's right. She MEOWED! Like a little kitten! I love when they make noises at me :)

So here are a few pictures of the other slimy critters we found...

Cascade Torrent Salamander

Dunn's Salamander with unusual coloration

Another Torrent. He is walking away :)

So after we were done snapping away at the pretty snot-lizards and monster red-legged frog, we continued along the trail.

 

 

 

 

 

Another Dunn's salamander

 

 My husband looked over at a tiny pool of water and found this adorable little guy.

A larval torrent salamander

We hiked back down and drove to Oneonta Gorge (just down the road). There we found too many larval giant salamanders and little red-legged frogs to count.

A larval giant salamander (same species as pig)

I was following my husband along the creek. He decided to start climbing on th log jam to look for Giants. I didn't feel like climbing, so I just waited for him at the bottom. I got bored and turned a little bit to look at the rock face next to me, and I saw a terrestrial giant salamander (the same species as Pig and Reptar, and the same stage as Reptar).

He was just hanging out on the rock wall. At my eye level :)

Me holding the giant. I kinda has the crazy eyes in this picture. o_O

He has crazy eyes, too :)

If you climb over the log jam and hike through the chasm, you will reach a neat waterfall. But you have to hike through really cold water (in some places, it can reach your hips during low-flow). The waterfall is practically impossible to get to most of the year. It has to be late summer so that the water flow is low enough that you can walk through. It also has to be a really hot day so that you can stand the freezing cold water. It was waaaay to cold to hike up to the waterfall.

After that we hopped in the car and started our journey home. We stopped at Multnomah for a little while to enjoy the gift shop and heated restrooms. Once in Washington, we decided to make a "quick" stop at an Applebees to use the gift card I got as a birthday present. It took them an hour to bring out my Lemon Drop (which tasted like rubbing alcohol with lemon. Eww) and it took them another 45 minutes to bring out our potato skins. Note to self: "Applebees" and "quick" do not go in the same sentence unless the phrase "is not" is put in between them!

Anyway, that is it for our little birthday trip. I should update with more posts soon. I still have to make a post about the newest member of our family...Merlin the corn snake! He was rescued from a friend. But more on that later ;) See ya!

Owen Beach

So my husband and I took a lot of little trips this summer. One of the places we went to was Owen Beach on the Puget Sound. We found a lot of little critters on this trip.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

A Harbor Seal out in the water. He was watching us :) 

A little crab

We also went looking for Western Fence Lizards.  You can also find them on southern-facing sandy beaches by the Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Here are some pictures of the one lizard my Husband caught.

Look at his pretty belly! I love that blue color :)

So there is my short post on our trip to Owen Beach. I can't wait to go back and find more western fence lizards :)

Tipsoo Lake

So my husband and I live near the Cascade Mountains in Washington State (west side). It is absolutely beautiful over here, and there are lots of hiking opportunities within an hour of where we live. Last week, we decided to visit Tipsoo lake. Tipsoo is an alpine lake that sits at about 5300 ft above sea level. The lake is surrounded by beautiful alpine meadows. If you have never had the pleasure of seeing an alpine meadow in person, you seriously need to go out and visit one. They are so beautiful! Even though pictures don't really do the place justice, I thought I would share some.

While we were walking along the trail, we came across a couple that were dipping their feet in the water. We talked to them for a moment and then realized that there were several Cascade frogs sitting on the rocks right next to their feet! The couple didn't even see them! We grabbed one and took a few pictures.

Would you notice this little guy if he was at your feet?

Cascade frogs are endemic to the Cascades of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. They are also found in the Olympics in Washington. They are awesome little frogs. So next time you are out hiking in the woods or splashing in a creek in Western Washington, don't forget to look down :)

Finding Animals in Unexpected Places: Disney World Part 1

I haven't posted anything on "herping" (finding reptiles and amphibians in the wild) yet. I thought I would start out with one of my favorite aspects of herping: finding herps in unexpected places. I really love finding any animal in an unexpected place. When you go out looking for an animal, or when you are in an environment where you expect to find a certain animal, it is cool enough when you spot a critter. But I think it is even cooler when you find animals in unusual or unexpected places. On our honeymoon trip to Disney World, for example, we found all sorts of interesting animals.

If I were to ask someone, "what sort of wild creatures would you expect me to find in Disney World"? Their first response would probably be seagulls and ducks (or mice, if they were trying to be cute). If they had been to Disney World before, they might say, "Egrets, Ibis, and little lizards (or anoles, if they knew about reptiles)". We found all of these animals in huge numbers on our trip without having to really look. I will start with these guys.

This photo was taken just before the duck decided my husband's camera strap was food (he did attempt to eat it, but H moved away just in time).

Aww! Duckling!

This is a brown anole.
Despite the fact that they are pretty easy to find, people don't seem to notice them.

This is an Egret. They seem to hang around the turkey leg carts at Disney World.

This is an ibis

So all of these animals are pretty common in Disney World. The reason why I am including them is because people don't seem to think they will find any sort of wild creature (besides the usual ducks and seagulls) on their vacation to a theme park.

It is hard to go an entire trip to Disney World without seeing ducks, seagulls, ibis, and egrets. But I did include one animal on this list that, while abundant, can be difficult to find. The brown anole.

Brown anoles are invasive to Florida. They compete with the Carolina Anole (AKA the green anole), which is native to Florida. 

The anoles seem to like resting on concrete and stone (anything that gets warm). I always find them on concrete dividers and stone benches around Disney World. I have also spotted them on trees and on the ground. They are very fast, so don't expect to catch them without a lizard noose. My husband (who has quite a bit of experience in this area) had a difficult time catching one. 

Since I am on the subject of anoles, I will mention the green anole. We only had a few confirmed green anole sightings on the entire trip. We always found them in bushes or trees. Here are some photos of a green anole we caught on the trip. 

                           

                       

That is it for part 1. Next time, I will talk about critters that are a little harder to find. Part 2 will include the pig frog, the southern toad, the florida softshell turtle, the mediterranean gecko, and a handful of other turtle species.