Just bought a property with Dicamtodons and every other Western Washington herp on it.

[sde]

I know that on my grandma's farm bull frogs have been present for a long time, yet, their numbers always seem to be just hanging on, and the native leopard frogs, toads and red legged frogs persist. The salamanders are all still common as well. I hope this is a sign that their are some places in the PNW where bull frogs just don't do very well.

Some species can retain decent population levels even when bullfrog populations are high, in my experience. There are several ponds near me that have large amounts of Bullfrogs, and Ambystoma gracile seems relatively unaffected. My guess is that they breed early enough in the spring that they evade the predatory frogs. Taricha granulosa numbers in my area also seem fine, even though I found a sickening amounts of juvenile Bullfrogs this summer near their main breeding grounds.
Bullfrogs can probably tolerate any temperature the Puget Trough throws at them, and the elevation obviously isn't much of a problem either. I have heard stories of bullfrog tracks being found in the snow in the winter in New England. They are hardy, tough frogs...which is what scares me, their so hard to control.

It was in pool in the stream near my bridge. A medium neotenic adult, about five inches long.

Nice find!

I always thought copes occurred only on the peninsula but lately I've heard differently from herpetologists that claim theirs some sort of copei like breed in the west central cascades.

I have never heard a claim like this. Quite interesting, though I kind of doubt it actually was anything but D. tenebrosus. I don't think there is much doubt that what you found was most likely a D. tenebrosus, they are known to live here and are common and widespread. They live just about everywhere it seems, even in streams with trout and crayfish.
If you have a chance to take a photo of this species or any species, I would love to see them! Congrats on the find!

 

[noneofmany]

Alright. I just thought I'd give you guys an update, and an explanation for the lack of pictures.

We have been dealing with some emergency repair and replacement work on the house so there hasn't been much time to explore the stream and property much.

But I've seen a lot of native herps without even really looking for them over the last month.

I found some very pretty black and yellow Dunn's salamanders, spotted a toad crossing the road at night, virtually stumbled into a puddle with several chorus and red legged frogs, and finally had to deal with an injured (buy my cats) alligator lizard that also happened to be pregnant which I nursed back to health and released where she came from.

There have been a few snakes here and there as well, one of whom skunked my black and white tabby.

A few days ago I decided to look into the stream on a calm sunny day and look and behold a seven to nine inch long dicamptodon was sitting on a sandy bank in plain view. I tried to get a net back at my house before it moved to get a better look and a few pictures but it was gone before got back.

The same day, I spite of their total absence in previous months, there were six or seven brook trout in the same spot as the salamander. None bigger than five inches. Every time one shot away from me I thought it was a salamander until peeled off upstream at about ten miles per hour, to fast for a caudate.

When things settle down here I'll get some pictures of the stream. It's really a pretty stream. Not at all like the mountain streams I'm used to seeing around here. The rocks and sand are mostly a reddish color. The larger stones aren't igneous, and theirs actually a fair amount of decomposing granite mixed in.

The sand is like tropical beach sand. Rounded, about the size of a grain of rice. It glows in the sun and is soft and airy to the touch, with very little silt.

The water also has many spots where hair algae grows into long bushes that wave like grass in the wind.

Much of it is open and bright, in spite of the old growth canopy.

 

[sde]

The black and yellow salamander was almost undoubtedly a Plethodon vehiculum ( Western redback salamander ), as P. dunni ( Dunn's salamander ) don't occur that far north. P. vehiculum can have yellow or golden backs, typically red, though, and sometimes they may even be all black.
Finding that Dicamptodon sounds really cool! They are one of my favorites.

 

[noneofmany]

The black and yellow salamander was almost undoubtedly a Plethodon vehiculum ( Western redback salamander ), as P. dunni ( Dunn's salamander ) don't occur that far north. P. vehiculum can have yellow or golden backs, typically red, though, and sometimes they may even be all black.
Finding that Dicamptodon sounds really cool! They are one of my favorites.

Whoops. I meant to say I thought they were van dyke's salamanders. After looking at a different range map I see they aren't supposed to be here. They sure looked them though, having super deep black bodies and squash colored backs all the way to the tip of the tail.
I should have caught one and looked at it's toes.

The alligator lizards here are also kind of different from what I usually see. They seem to retain there juvenile patterns and colors to a large degree. Most northern alligators develop a more mottled brown appearance. They kind of look like a Shasta inter grade but without the green heads.

 

[sde]

Whoops. I meant to say I thought they were van dyke's salamanders. After looking at a different range map I see they aren't supposed to be here. They sure looked them though, having super deep black bodies and squash colored backs all the way to the tip of the tail.
I should have caught one and looked at it's toes.

Plethodon vandykei ( Van Dykes salamander ) doesn't live anywhere near Edmonton's WA either xD
Also, the easiest way to distinguish P. vehiculum from P. dunni is by their tail. In P. vehiculum the dorsal color stripe extends to the tip of the tail, with crisp edges the whole way, whereas with P. dunni this is not true.

 

[birdsong]

Pictures ! Please please please some pictures lol.

 

[noneofmany]

Plethodon vandykei ( Van Dykes salamander ) doesn't live anywhere near Edmonton's WA either xD
Also, the easiest way to distinguish P. vehiculum from P. dunni is by their tail. In P. vehiculum the dorsal color stripe extends to the tip of the tail, with crisp edges the whole way, whereas with P. dunni this is not true.

Well in that case it was definitely a red back.

 

[noneofmany]

Ok. Again sorry for the lack of pictures but I've busy with moving and don't have the time to learn how to post images right now.

I just wanted to update the status of the fauna.

Since last post I've seen another large dicamptodon as well as three Colombian spotted frogs.

There have also been several more trout, including one that I managed to feed some trout pellets from a few feet away.

No tree frogs, no newts, and no bullfrogs at all.