Life is Stirring, Once Again

I love winter but I am particularly glad to see the arrival of spring this year. There are so many things that I'm looking forward to photographing and most of these things don't come out until the warmer weather shows up. This past weekend, my five-year-old son and I spent some time exploring the woods and photographing some of the creatures that we found around our home. Here are a few of the many things that we discovered (check out image of myself and a queen European Hornet (Vespa crabro) that had just come out of hibernation). I made this photo with a wide-angle macro technique that I began experimenting with a couple of years ago. My lens was literally about an inch away from the subject and I would normally never think of getting so close to these fairly docile, but potent members of the wasp family. However, due to the colder weather that we had on Sunday, she wasn't going anywhere fast.

My son was thrilled to find quite a few land snails crawling about.

We also discovered a number of salamanders moving around after last week's rains. This is one of the Plethodons –I suspect that it is a 'Mountain Dusky Salamander– but I wouldn't bet my life on it. As much as I love salamanders, I find certain individuals in this group to be very tricky to identify.

I am very hopeful that the increase in rain this past winter and so far this spring will feed the earth and brings lots of good things out, about and blooming. I'll be heading up into the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment over the next few days to see how the ephemeral species of wildflowers are progressing so far.

Salamander Season

Now that Spring has finally arrived I'm really hoping to make some new images of salamanders. The Blue Ridge Escarpment of South Carolina is one of the world's epi-centers for these amazing amphibians and provides habitat for some very unusual species. One of those is the Green Salamander Aneides aeneus which typically make their homes in small crevices in granitic balds and other types of rock outcrops. This beautiful, cryptically colored species is one of the most uncommon salamanders found in the Eastern U.S. and can be quite difficult to photograph even when you know where a population exists. Some researchers, such as North American Landtrust biologist Christopher R. Wilson proposes that this perceived rarity may be due, in part, to the Chestnut Blight that obliterated the American Chestnut population in the early part of the 20th century. Many propose that this species of tree was an important part of the salamander's habitat and even today it will often spend time in trees.

Of the sites that I know of, one in Pickens Co., SC proved to be the place where I would ultimately find a species to photograph. However, this came after several failed attempts to find one that I could safely reach. I was really thrilled when this day finally arrived and photographed the beautiful specimen in as many ways that I could think of. I knew that I only had a few minutes and wasn't sure when the opportunity might arrive again. In the end, my favorite shots were the ones that captured more of the spirit of the animal than every anatomical detail.

I recently returned to the site this spring and didn't see a single specimen. I only hope that this is due to my bad luck and not a decline in the population there.