This summer has been one of wildlife surprises.
While cleaning out a spot where our drinking water spring has an overflow pipe, I came across three amazing adult red salamanders under some rocks.
The younger one is brighter red. They become darker as they age.
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Salamanders love cool spring waters but they have no lungs and respire only through their skins.
The bright red color is believed to be a warning to potential predators with color vision - birds and reptiles but not most mammals - that they have a toxic skin secretion.
They also resemble the juvenile red eft newt, which has a toxic substance (tetrodotoxin) in its skin and organs.
The resemblance of two animals with both toxic is called Muellerian mimicry, since it is easier to teach predators to avoid a common color pattern. This may be confusing for birds to learn this since many of the fruits they eat are red.
Fact Box
William Dunson, Ph.d., professor emeritus of biology at Penn State University, splits time between Southwest Florida and his farm in Galax, Va. He can be reached at wdunson@comcast.net.
Adult red salamanders are mostly terrestrial in damp locations but lay their eggs in the fall in the water. The aquatic larvae have gills and require several years to mature.
Salamanders love cool spring waters but they have no lungs and respire only through their skins.
When turning over rocks near a spring or cool stream watch for this amazing amphibian, but do not eat it.
The other surprise involved birds.
By early July most birds are usually finished with breeding and only too glad to fatten themselves up and enjoy some time alone or with companions.
However, some birds continue to breed and have a second or even third clutch of babies. Three examples into at least their second clutch live quite near our home.
The phoebes are nesting in an elegant moss-covered nest under our cabin on a ladder stored there. This is the same nest used the first time; the babies are almost ready to leave and will certainly burst from its minimal confines soon.
The tree swallows are in a nest box close to our house. It is unusual for them to have a second clutch. Bluebirds do this regularly.
The redwings are nesting in a cattail and sedge thicket along the edge of a pond next to our house. All babies appear fit and all mouth when any movement occurs nearby. We wish them bon voyage on their new lives.
