Salamanders
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Red-backed Salamander
I’ve known about salamanders in Brooklyn for a while now, but this Eastern Red-backed (Plethodon cinereus) I ran into this week was the first I’ve seen personally. What is the story here? How have they managed to survive in the midst of all this? True, this one was in as woodsy a place as you…
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Red-Spotted Newts
The Eastern Red-spotted Newt. A.K.A. Eastern Newt. Notophthalmus viridescens. This is the aquatic adult stage. When they’re younger, they have a terrestrial stage. On land, the “red efts” are startlingly orange-red colored, walking “don’t eat me!” signs (being toxic to most predators). These spotted newts can live more than a dozen years. This seems to…
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Newts!
One of several Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) in the high reservoir at Black Rock Forest recently. The red-spots are telling here, identifying the animal (another common name is Red-spotted Newt) and warning predators to lay off. This is the mature, aquatic stage of the animal’s life-cycle. They can live more than a dozen years. As…
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Salamanders in Da Bronx
As part of New York City Wildflower Week, I went up to Van Cortlandt Park in the nether reaches of the Bronx to join Ellen Pehek in turning over some old wood. Ellen is the NYC Parks & Rec Principal Research Ecologist and involved in a study monitoring Eastern Red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). How do…
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Ouroboros
Every twenty years or so, my dander gets up and I write a letter to the New York Times. In the mid-1980s, I did it to spank Edward Teller, who poo-pooed the concept of nuclear winter in an Op-Ed, with a reminder of the global climate effects of “Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death.” That…
Backyard and Beyond 