Digging a patch of land over to plant a load of potatoes and I came across what I thought was an Amazonian Poison Dart Frog!!! After turning over a little more mud and wiping the little critter down it turned out to be a Yellow Spotted Salamander! Never seen anything like it. They are pretty common in the region, apparently. 6 inches long with bright yellow dots it was a fantastic thing to see crawling near the brook at the bottom of the garden.
Found some decent info on
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mnh/nature/salamand/yspot.htm'At 10 to 20 cm long, these are our biggest salamanders. They are common all over, hiding by day in the moist forest darkness under logs and rocks, or in other animals' tunnels. On damp nights Yellow-spots move about on the forest floor searching for food. Like all Nova Scotian Salamanders they hibernate during the winter. You might find one holed up in a damp cellar or tucked into a woodpile.'
'March 26 is their earliest noted spring appearance here, but you will see them during April and May courting and mating in ponds at night. The male does an elaborate courtship dance to attract the female. Eggs are laid in water, in fist-sized masses of jelly attached to pond plants. Each female can lay up to several hundred eggs. Some larvae mature after one summer in the pond, but others overwinter in the mud. These become adults during their second summer.'
Things are really picking up and new birds and animals are appearing every day.
