Salamander!

[tiggymalvern]

After 15 years in this house, we're still finding new creatures that share our garden with us. This time it's a western red-backed salamander, that was unimpressed when I moved the piece of wood it was hiding under.



Yes, it's a bad photo, poor light and a moving subject, and I only held it briefly before I wetted it down again and put it back where I found it.

No, it doesn't have a red back, just a suggestion of a yellow stripe on the tail. Western red-backed salamanders come in a ridicuous array of colours and patterns, everything from all orange to all black. I had to ask the denizens of the bird-watching email list what species it was, because I would never have recognised it from a picture of one with a red back...

Comments

[anirrationalseason]

Oh wow, never seen one of these in person. He's kind of cute!

[tiggymalvern]

He was super cute! But then I was the kid who poked around under rocks looking for frogs, toads and newts when I kid in England. This was only the second salamander I've see in WA - the first was one of the neotonous aquatic ones in a shallow pond up at Mount Rainier NP, completely different and much larger than this guy.

[bymyverytoes]

Way late on the commenting here, but

oooh :)

[tiggymalvern]

I don't often go around picking up big pieces of wood in the damp parts of the garden, or I'd probably find more of them :-)