September 23

Down Grove, past Robinson’s Greenhouse, as the road descends and the woods thicken on the western side, the forest becomes boggy, and there is a small vernal pool set back from the road on the eastern side, partially hidden by the brush and grasses that encircle it.

In the spring, this pool is a cacophony of peepers and wood frogs, and in the summer the red-winged blackbirds often congregate among the cattails on the far side.

Now, the pond is nearly dry as is normal for such pools, particularly following the prolonged arid stretch the town’s experienced. There is just enough mucky leaf fall in the basin to characterize it properly as wetland, and I imagine that a little investigation would turn up several types of amphibians.

One such, a juvenile red-spotted salamander, was making its way across the road, heading from the area of the pool to some urgent spot in the lowland woods. What inner drive compelled it to venture forth I can only guess.

It was roughly two inches long from head to tail, a muted orange color, with slightly darker spots covering itself. Some time go, I suspect this creature was one of the many iridescent day-glow ents that we see in this area, no bigger than an inch.

I used a flat stick to lift it gingerly and moved it to the western side of the road, where it resumed its trek toward the woods.