Tiger Salamander Chase Vol 1 1/5/06

So the word is that on the first warm rainy night of January there is a spectacle that takes place in a certain delmarva bay up in Kent County, Maryland. Imagine 50-100 six to eight inch Tiger Salamanders all waking up in their underground burrows saying to themselves, "Hey, it's raining outside and its warm. I want to get it on!" So they climb up to the outside world and instinctively know to start heading to that pond where they got it on the year before. No one gets lost. They all get there safely. Meet their mates. And for one warm rainy night this certain delmarva bay turns into an orgiastic Tiger Salamander utopia. At least that's what I was thinking as I was driving up to Millington WMA in Kent County that rainy warm foggy night.
A few weeks earlier I had gone to Millington WMA to scope out at which pond the Tiger Salamanders might mate. I found a couple delmarva bays that I thought might be the right ones and decided to head back that first rainy night in January. I have no problem admitting that I freaked myself out. It was foggy, yet there was a slight breeze that made the tree branches rustle. It was dark and my Wal-Mart head lamp just didn't seem to light up enough of an area to make me comfortable. I knew there was some deranged redneck cannibal freak waiting behind the next tree for a mid-thirties amatuer naturalist/photographer who happens to be out trying to take pictures of copulating salamanders. I walked around two of the delmarva bays I had staked out a few weeks earlier. I found no salamanders. I got wet. I heard Spring Peepers. I fell into the delmarva bay. I got real wet. There were no deranged redneck cannibl freaks. There were still no salamanders. I'm not sure if I had the right delmarva bay or it still might have been too early in the year. I'll just have to go back up to Millington the next warm rainy night in January.