Soggy SoCal

[russ]

I took my son Ian out to southern CA to look for caudates over his spring break. I knew they had received a lot of moisture, but I wasn't prepared for what we were (or were not) to find. Jarid had mentioned to me that he had had some dismal luck and thought it was too wet. I really couldn't imagine that. Holy cow was he right, the substrate under everything was soaked. And unfortunately our target species, Ensatina, does not like saturated conditions. After half a day in the Cuyamaca Mts we had found just two E.e.klauberi, both from last years reproduction (~5cm).

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Note how well their bold colors actually blend in with the fallen live leaves.

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We decided to try our luck at Mt Palomar that afternoon. Even with Ian's help we didn't fair much better in numbers but did find an adult pair.

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We found this male first.

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And finally this female.

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With such pathetic results we decided to go ahead and head for Breckenridge Mt and the Greenhorn Mts. Unfortunately both were snowed in down to 4000ft. Argh!! At that point we decided to call it a trip and just head to the beach.

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[mike]

Excellent, get him started on the salamanders young!

 

[pamela]

Very nice Russ! I used to live in Poway, Ca., and would visit Mt. Palomar often - lovely. At least you had a nice vacation with your son, and found some sals!

 

[josh]

russ, i had the same results every time i went out for klauberi.... only found a couple last years spawn. my croceator trip was great tho. i must have hit a good weekend cause it hadnt rained in a while and wasnt too bad...but its dumped on so cal since then... i wont be going back for probly a month. at least you found a pair eh. take care russ

 

[josh]

the P.V. location has been more pathetic than that. we have yielded just one adult from there.

 

[russ]

The real stinker is that I froze my fruit fly colony off the week before, so now I have to start another one. I'll have to post a pic showing the growth difference between a WC and CB from last season, quite significant.

RUSS

 

[travis]

I had similar results. I didn't have much time and the conditions were way to wet. I looked but didn't find any E.e.croceator at Tejon.
Travis