It’s a gray March
morning in
Driving south to see
my brother in
Still, a few stubborn turtles insist on
sunbathing, despite the absence of any sun.
And, lucky for me, even a Spotted Turtle is out and about, searching
for a mate regardless of the weather.
Some urges simply won’t be dampened.
In fact, some urges
are best when wet. That night Ron and I
visit a hot tub of amphibian delight, a breeding pond crowded with amorous frogs
and toads.
Male toads cause the
water to ripple from the vibration of their trilling.
At
another vernal pool we wade into the brown water in search of salamanders.
This female Spotted
Salamander is attaching fertilized eggs to a twig that will anchor the egg
mass.
New eggs are clear,
but older masses turn green, the result of symbiotic algae living in the
gelatinous envelope of each egg. As
the embryos grow, they eliminate carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which feeds a
unique species of algae found only in Spotted Salamander eggs. The algae in turn provide the developing
embryos with oxygen, much needed due to the anoxic water, and because the
structure and composition of the egg mass makes it difficult for oxygen to
penetrate the envelopes.
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