One Hail of a Week

A couple of weeks ago, we did the first week of our annual stream sampling as part of the Rhododendron Removal project. As a reminder (because I have many projects and I don't expect you, the reader, to remember them all), this is a collaborative experiment between the Forest Service and the Coweeta LTER (aka many scientists) to look at the impact of different methods for Rhododendron removal on the forest. The first day we set leaf litter bags in the stream. This method is a common way to sample for stream salamanders and their larvae. The leaf litter packs provide cover for salamanders and standardize sampling effort. It rained while we were out, but that is nothing new or unexpected out here. We try to set them all in one day then let them acclimate for the second day and start sampling on the third. But we didn't have enough people to set all 4 of the streams the first day, so we set the rest on the second day.

The morning of the second day we found a Spring Salamander climbing a tree. During the day...just the first of a week of strange occurrences. Unusual for this salamander to be climbing (though not un heard of) and for it to be out during the day.

Gyrinophilus porphyriticus

The next day we started sampling leaf litter bags. On the drive to the field site, we saw a ruffed grouse with 3 babies!! They were very cute, but fledging so all flew away before I could get a picture. 

Near one of the leaf litter bags we caught an adult Black-belly salamander (Desmognathus quadramaculatus). Once we had it in a plastic bag (for idntification purposes) I noticed it had a tail sticking out of it's mouth. Due to stress, from being in the bag or being captured, it started to spit up it's most recent meal. I noticed the tail was round and black, so I started to suspect it was a Plethodon sp., but I had no idea it would be quite so big! This salamander was almost as large as the one eating it! Salamanders are known to eat other salamanders, but it seemed unusual for a highly aquatic salamander to eat a fully terrestrial salamander. I am rather curious about how this came about, unfortunately I will never know for sure.

We stopped for lunch during a pretty intensive hail storm. The timing worked out pretty well though. At the second stream we caught a small fish! I believe it is a brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). We have seen a few of these between last year and this year. They are very pretty fish. There is an incredible diversity of freshwater fish in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

That hail storm turned out to be even heavier in other areas. As we were driving home, we saw what looked like foam on the sides of the road. Turned out to be hail drifts. Some of these were a few inched deep and covered up to half of the road! Beginning of June and it looks like the middle of winter...Ok mountains, you do whatever you want...

The next day (Thursday for anyone trying to keep track), we stumbled across another incident of salamander predation. This video pretty much speaks for itself, but I will point out a few details. First, the salamander with a white stomach (the one being bit) is still alive. After the few first second you can see it's throat moving. Second this is actually fairly common. Spring Salamanders (the orange one) primarily eat other salamanders. It was awesome to see it wrestling its prey. Video courtesy of Erin Cork.

During our lunch break I found a four leaf clover! Although I know this was the result of a genetic anomaly, it was still exciting. After a little more looking we found 4 more and a 5 leaf clover! 

 The streams we survey have both Black-belly and Shovel-nose Salamanders. These two species are the most aquatic and largest of their genus (Desmognathus). They can be hard to tell apart, but one of the distinguishing characters is that shovel-nose salamanders have more forward facing eyes. The two pictures below are fairly distinctly different, unfortunately many of the animals we see look intermediate to the two species. I am starting to wonder if they are hybridizing. They are closely related, so it is possible, but it has not been recorded in this area. Genetic samples would be the best way to answer this question. 

Desmognathus marmoratus

Desmognathus quadramaculatus

We found an egg clutch of one of the aforementioned larger species:

After these eggs hatch they will remain as larvae for several years before transforming into their adult forms (without gills). 

In contrast, one of the more terrestrial species metamorphoses incredible small.

Desmognathus ocoee

No better way to end a long work day than with a rainbow! I was just looking out at the mountains and noticed a yellow band in the trees. I started wondering why I had never noticed it before, it seemed like a strange way to arrange a treatment, because most experiments here were done on a watershed level. Then I realized it was a rainbow and not a strange coloring of the trees... Signs of a very tired mind after a long day in the field. :)

That night, after the afternoon shower, a few of us decided to go out and explore at night (because we were not exhausted enough I guess...). Turned out to be a pretty great idea, in the end. We saw an incredible number of salamanders on the road. We assumed it was because it rained, because they generally do not care for gravel surfaces. Three of us waled along about 400 m of road for less then 10 minutes and counted 84 salamanders!! If we walked for an hour and this number stayed consistent, we would have seen over 500 salamanders!!! The density here is awe inspiring. 

 The last day of sampling nothing exciting happened (shocking considering the week we had had), but we did find these cute mushrooms.

 And finally to end a long week, I was driving home and saw this incredibly bright double rainbow.

Beautiful reminder to appreciate the little things in life. Mother Nature keeps sticking those reminders right in my face, exactly when I need them. You just have to remember to see them and recognize the beauty.