Friday, October 5, 2007

Break out your microscopes kids

I was heading to my basement to take the turtlets out of their feeding tupperware and I stumbled upon this baby leadback salamander on the concrete in front of my and neighbor's basements. It sure was slimy sticky and really hard to pick up since it was so insanely small and squirming. I saw an adult redback salamander in the same area last year and rescued it, since you have to go down the stairs and there's nothing down there for them. Redback and leadbacks are the same species just different phase. Redbacks is more common and leadbacks have a gray hue to them. This one was so tiny it was difficult to accurately identify.

So I had a mini photo session with this little one. It sure was hard to steady my one hand and use the macro lens feature. I let it free in the landscaping and sprinkled it with water since I thought for a few minutes that it was dead. But it squirmed to life and away into the bushes it went.

3 comments:

Colleen said...

eee! Looks similar to that creepola lizard that got into my foyer the other day. That thing wiggled all over like a little weird S.

Anonymous said...

Must disagree, Co. That is ri.dic.u.lous.ly. cute. It's so cute, it could host a japanese morning talk show.

Kartek said...

I thought it was cute. Just found a red back the same size in the same land. So another rescue has occurred.