2009 Bath Salamander Walk
Welcome to the 2009 migration season.
The weather is pretty crazy right now but warming up soon,
I think. By the looks of it, spotted salamanders might be on the
move as early as next week. It is too early to tell for sure, but over the
next couple of days, if the current
weather reports hold, it may be that we get the migration started in March
rather than what has historically fallen in April.
See below for our current plan.
Remember that when the salamanders will move is highly weather dependent and
therefore somewhat unpredictable. I will host a brief walk and talk at the Windhover Pond Spotted Salamander Study Site, located
in Steiner Woods. We will convene at the
Bath Township Center Parking Lot at 9 pm, and walk over to the site from there. Please dress
appropriately...salamanders like it cool and wet, so we are hoping for rain
before and during the walk! Below you will find a link to the Bath
Township Webpage. If you are not sure how to get to the township parking
lot follow the third link below or search on mapquest for 1246 N.
Cleveland Massillon Road in Bath 44333 (Bath Elementary). The township
center is across the street from Bath Elementary and attached to the fire station.
spotted salamander on our photorig for photo id recognition
2009 Season Notes
5/5/09 (3PM) : Over the last several weeks, there have been no new migrants. On Sunday I shut the fence down. Hope to see you all next year. Thanlcs for coming out this year.
4/21/09 (345 PM): With all the rain we had yesterday, only 6 salamanders moved. We may be at the end of the migration this year. I will update once more over the next week.
4/3/09 (330 PM): No walk tonight. Temperature is dropping. Did you see the forecast for next week? I miss the snow. I am sure that I will run one more walk this year, just doesn't look like it will be very soon!
3/29/09 (300 PM): No walk tonight. The temperature is dropping fast (it is 42 already). 15-20 animals moved last night. I am waiting for an evening where many animals are likely to move. We need more rain and slightly more moderate temperatures.
3/28/09 (630 PM): No walk tonight. Rain isn't likely until very late or early tomorrow morning. Check back tomorrow.
3/27/09 (530 PM): 3 sallies came in last night. Look for an update tomorrow or Sunday if there is rain in the forecast.
3/26/09 (730 PM): No walk tonight. We got about 90 salamanders last night. Look for an update when more rain is forecast.
3/25/09 (3PM} : No walk tonight. I am waiting for a day with heavy rain and temperatures above 50-55.
3/19/09 (4pm): About 100 salamanders moved last night, probably quite late since it didn't really rain too hard till after about 9. I don't expect much activity for the next several days. Check back for updates.
3/18/09 (630 PM): I will be in Canton until about 1130 pm but will let you know tomorrow if a bunch of animals move. It depends on how late it starts raining and how hard it rains.
3/16/09 (700 PM): It has been quiet and dry since last week. No sallies tonight, but keep an eye on Wednesday.
3/11/2009 (600 PM): No salamanders last night. I don't expect any activity for the next few nights since it will be dry. I will update you Friday.
3/10/09 (720 PM): I will be out tonight at 9 PM. No guarantees. I will put 50: 50 odds on it. You cant lose, really. If they don't move at least it will be muddy, cold, rainy and dark.
3/9/09 (900 PM): The weather seemed perfect last night but only 5 salamanders came to the pond. The most likely explanation is that the ground is still too cold. Persistent puddles out in the woods suggest to me it is still frozen below the surface in many places. Look for an update tomorrow for our next walk. Thanks to the 20-25 folks that ventured out last night. After 11 years on the study, it is still hard to predict what those sallies are going to do.
3/8/09 (945 AM): 15 spotted salamanders moved early this morning...so the rest are holding out for a big rainy night, I suppose. It looks like tonight may fit the bill. I have to be in Cleveland early this evening, but i will be back for a 9PM walk, as long as nothing unexpected happens. If 9 PM rolls around and i am not there, call my mobile or email me and i will be able to update you. Finally, and this is important. Please do not go to the pond without me, unless YOU ARE or ARE WITH a student that has worked specifically on the salamander project with me. There is too much liability otherwise, given that the pond is University Property and the site is not for public access. The salamander project is one of my scientific studies and I rely on your cooperation to protect its integrity. Please respect this request.
3/7/09 (745 PM): I just checked the radar. Doesn't look like rain is likely until after midnight. I doubt if any salamanders will move without it. I will be out tonight anyway just to see, but if you are really just interested in seeing lots of salamanders, tonight is not the night.
3/7/09 (700 AM): Thunderstorms this morning. I will be out at the pond this morning checking the fence for holes. I will update you this afternoon about a walk tonight, but tonight might be a good night. (230 pm): I will be out tonight and if it is raining, at least some animals are likely to move. However, I will do one or two more evening walks this season.
3/4/09 (845 AM): Very cold last night and tonight. Although warming by Friday and Saturday, it will probably not rain enough for movement to be very likely. I will keep you posted on conditions on Thursday as I will probably be doing fence mending much of the day.
3/1/09 - 3/2/09: Last week I thought we might get a pulse of animals, but none moved, and by the weekend it had turned too cold again. An interesting thing happened. One female tried to move to the pond late Saturday night, even though it was considerably below freezing, We found her literally frozen in her tracks Sunday morning (see above). Usually, if any salamanders are going to get caught moving too early, we expect it to be males. There is a high premium for them to get to the pond first.
2008 Season History
4/12/08 (3 PM): I think this might be my last chance to pull off a walk, so I will be at the parking lot between 9 and 915 PM tonight for a walk. If we are lucky, animals will move, but I also have about 35 animals to release tonight from yesterday evening. In any case, you will get a chance to see the spotteds, if you haven't already...it is just that it will be as they swim away from you!
4/11/08 (545 PM): No walk tonight. It has been dry here most of the day, and it is not raining now. Another update tomorrow. BTW, we had about 10 animals move last night (the rain was light and short in duration and arrived as a brief shower around 9pm and then again at 430 AM this morning).
4/10/08 (530 PM): No walk tonight...the rain will probably arrive very late or early morning. However, if we do have some animals that come in during the wee hours of friday morning, i will probably do a release on Friday night. Those interested could at least participate in the release. I will post an update Friday afternoon.
4/9/08 (4PM): I am cancelling the walk tonight...there just isn't any chance of seeing animals migrating under these dry conditions...look for an update tomorrow. Sorry.
4/8/08 (11am): I had about 10 requests for another walk, so we will try to do that over the next 2-3 weeks. The rain tomorrow is expected early in the day...so i am not going to go out to the pond until late. I will be at the parking lot between 1030 and 1045 PM...I realize that this does not work well for young kids, so I will also try to do an earlier walk later in the week, maybe Friday or Saturday, depending on the conditions. Look for an update middle-late afternoon tomorrow. Thanks for your interest in the project.
4/4/08 (5PM): No walk tonight. Rest of the weekend looks dry. We had about 8 people show for the walk last night, animals were moving and we saw peepers, and newts in addition to spotteds. This morning we had about 150 spotteds in our buckets. I may do one more walk this season, especially if we get a heavy rain one of the nights over the next 3 weeks. Email me if you would be interested so i can gauge potential attendance.
4/3/08 (515 PM): Here is my plan for tonight. The radar map suggests it will actually rain tonight...not clear exactly when. However, i think the animals are primed to move even though it has been dry for most of the day. If it is raining in the akron-bath area at 8PM, i will be out at the parking lot for another public walk....meet us there between 830-845 as described above. I cannot guarantee a big migration, but it seems like at least some animals should be moving under the circumstances. If it starts raining really hard late in the evening/early morning, we may be facing hundreds of salamanders in the buckets tomorrow morning.
4/2/08 (1PM): About 10 people joined us for releasing 100 or so salamanders
last night. Boy, was it cold. Only one new salamander came in last
evening, and i expect a lull until
Friday, or maybe next week. I'll keep you posted.
4/1/08 (130PM): We got about 75 or so animals last night...we were out between about 10 PM and 1130 and saw only about half that many, so the rest either straggled in over the course of the evening or very early this morning with the rainshowers aroung 4 AM. I will be doing the first of 2 or 3 formal walks tonight, rain or not...even if we don't get any animals coming in, we will have a bunch to release back into the pond, and anybody interested can participate in that and get an up close and personal look at the sallies. If you are dying to see the actual migration in, you may want to wait for the next walk which will hopefully occur when it is raining. We will be in the parking lot between 830-845...and we will walk over from there.
3/31/08 (1 PM): They continue to dribble in (another 4 animals last night). There will be NO FORMAL walk tonight, but for those of you interested in coming out just in case a few animals are moving, I will meet you in the parking lot between 945-1000PM.
3/30/08 (7 PM): If any salamanders move tonight...it will not be until after midnight, by the looks of the weather forecast. Let's see how tomorrow and Tuesday shape up. I will update you tomorrow morning about what happens tonight.
3/28/08 (430 PM): too dry; nothing is going to move tonight. Monday is looking very promising, however. The fact that a few animals already moved means that many others should be ready and first warm rain, many should move.
3/28/08 (1220 AM): Just back from the pond; four male spotted salamanders braved the cold rain.
3/27/08 (3PM): Tired of these updates yet? Be patient, it will pay off. I don't think anything is going to happen before Sunday or Monday, given the forecast. Actually, the delays have helped us get ready for the onslaught of animals...One of the new things we are working on this year is to use special software (something like fingerprint id software) to use digital pictures of each spotted salamander as a way of uniquely identifying them. So, we get a picture of each salamander that comes into the pond, and that goes into a database which is searched by the software each time we get a new picture over the coming years. As it turns out, each salamander has a unique spot pattern that is preserved with age. One of my graduate students is testing the efficacy of this new approach. We just now have all the photographic and computer equipment ready to start...so the delays have been helpful.
3/26/08 (730 PM): No rain, no sallies...simple as that. Update tomorrow.
3/25/08 (10PM): Nothing moving given it is so dry. The weather forecast has been pretty far off the mark today. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry again. Another update tomorrow evening.
3/25/08 (11AM): Believe it or not, i do not think tonight is the night. Still too cool. I will update this page between 5 - 6...or if i can't get to it....look for an update on the weather outlook late this evening. In any case, start of the migration is "ify" enough that I don't want to schedule a walk tonight so you can all come out and stare at the trees!
3/23/08 (745 PM): nothing tonight or tomorrow night...too cold and dry. I think, even though tuesday and wednesday call for some rain, the probability is not high and the temps are still cool. Let's see what happens as we get closer, though. I'll keep you posted. If you are getting frustrated with the weather, get used to it! I'm sure there is more unpredictability to come.
3/21/08 (930 PM): Yup, it's snowing....Let's see how much we get (my bet is 4 inches). Update tomorrow night.
3/20/08 (630 PM): It is going to be cold and dry, probably into mid-next week. Unless the weather changes, I don't expect anything to move before Wednesday.
3/19/08 (1030PM): About 1 inch of snow, a pair of Owls, and nothing else moving.
3/19/08 (430 PM): In 10 years of waiting for the migration to start each year, I have never seen salamanders move when the air temperature drops below 40- it is at 35 right now and falling. According to the latest forecast, the next few days will have highs in the 30's and be relatively rain-free, so I expect a delay in the migration. I'll update this site each day about 4-5 PM or sooner if the weather forecast changes so check back for the latest info. Oh, and btw...it is snowing!
3/18/08 (1030PM): Spent about 1.5 hours out tonight. Nothing. I will update you tomorrow afternoon. Note that rain predicted for tomorrow afternoon is now possibly going to arrive as snow!
3/18/08 (4PM): Although I thought differently this morning, I now doubt that animals will move tonight. If any do, it will be a handful - and probably very late. Tomorrow night looks promising, but it depends on whether the reality follows the forecast! If it really rains hard tonight (late) and tomorrow (most of the day), then the ground might just be soft enough for them to get out of their burrows and move. Look for an update tomorrow morning early.
3/18/08: look for an update later in the day (mid to late afternoon). There is still snow on the ground around the pond and a good covering of ice so I don't think tonight is the night but if we get as much rain as is predicted, that could change.
3/17/08 : Keep watching this page. I will generally update it the day before or day of a likely migration event between 4-6 pm as conditions permit. Be patient; salamanders will move when they are ready, not when it is convenient. But when they run, it sure is cool to see. Check out notes from the 2007 season if you want to see how it went last year. E-mail me if you have questions. Thanks for your interest in this study.
2007 Season History
3/26/07 (430pm): we may do another walk this coming week, schedule and weather permitting. FYI, we (rosalie steiner) found a kid's mitten/glove out at the pond. If you lost one, email me and i will find a way to get it back to you.
3/24/07 (830 am): We did the walk last night and released 400 salamanders (I asked participants to 'free' the salamanders... folks seemed to enjoy this) that we marked during the day. It was sort of just drizzling last night so not too many animals moved. This morning we had about 100-150 total. I will try to do another walk next week.
3/23/07 (2pm): It started to rain about 230 or 300 am this morning...and that was enough to get about 4-500 animals to come into the pond. I was out last night until about 830 or so, and there was only a handful of animals running...so it is a good thing we didn't run the walk. But I want to run it tonight because it think it is wet enough for a good showing. Also, I will have a bunch of animals to release tonight, so you can see at least those. We will meet at the parking lot a 845, and then walk over en mass to the pond. See you then. Don't forget to bring flashlights and boots...it is muddy. Also, if you have any pull at all, see if you can get us a little rain shower around 8pm.
3/22/07 (6pm): probably not the update you were waiting for. I just came back from the pond and the surface of the ground is pretty dry. So, we will put it off till tomorrow when the forecast is for rain between 5 and 11pm. Where have you heard that before? I'll let you know tomorrow if anybody moved tonight; and look for an update on the walk for tomorrow around 3-5 pm.
3/22/07 (3pm): nothing moved last night....too dry. Believe it or not, there is still a lot of ice on the pond. I am going to head over to the pond around 5 pm and see if the surface of the ground is wet enough that salamanders would be likely to move. I will update this page around 6pm and let you know. The curent weather report shows only about 20% chance of rain through tomorrow noon, so if the ground is to dry this evening, i will not have the walk. check back around 6pm today.
3/21/07 (4pm): pretty sure nothing will happen tonight...turned out too dry and chance of rain is only 10% through the evening. Tomorrow looks good. This is fun, isn't it?
3/20/07 (430): tomorrow and Thursday still look very good for the real start of the migration season. Look here for an update around 2pm tomorrow.
3/19/07 (12pm): I think wed, thur, friday are likely. I would anticipate having our walk on one of those evenings. Look for an update late tomorrow (3/20). In the meantime, stay warm!
3/17/07 (5pm): Still too cold tonight and tomorrow night as well. Monday will be warmer, but unless there is rain, I don't expect movement. Look for another update end of the day tomorrow.
3/16/07 (8pm): just too cold tonight. I'll update you tomorrow. The 70 salamanders that came in yesterday were released last night...they are lucky to be in the pond!
3/15/07 (330pm): I was out last night until about 1030 pm, and saw a total of two spotted salamanders come into the pond; lack of rain most of the day was probably the reason. However, around midnight we started to get some significant showers, which continued on and off until about 5 am, when the temperature dropped and it started to snow. I got out to the pond around 7am today and found 70 salamanders in the buckets, most of them seemed pretty unhappy with the snow! Anyway, I expect things to be very quiet for the next 4 or 5 days, but keep your eye on the weather forecast as Wednesday approaches...it is going to warm up again. Given how many salamanders moved last night, I think that the next good day will be a very heavy run; many hundreds at least.
3/14/07 (330pm): It has been dry most of the day and the rain may not start up until late. I am going to hold off on the scheduled walk because I think it is possible that animals will not move until very late tonight. If we do have animals in the morning, I am guessing it will not be too many. If tomorrow the temperature holds, it may be a better bet. Either that or sometime next week. Check back tomorrow and I will let you know what happens.
3/13/07 (630pm): Warm, but too dry for anything to happen tonight. I was out last night just in case and there was nothing happening. I expect that if the rain actually arrives as predicted (wed morning very early, and thursday morn very early) then we will have a break here for the next couple of days...that is, no real chance of a public walk until into next week sometime). I'll keep you posted.
3/12/07: I know what you're thinking...it's raining. Actually, it is only spitting, sort of. Anyway, pretty sure nobody is going to move tonight. I went out last night and saw nothing happening, except a coyote that was too close and too loud! I am pretty sure that nothing will move tonight, but I will let you know tomorrow how Wednesday night is shaping up. The ground is still frozen in many places so I am inclined to think it is still too early.
3/11/07: Joe Loucek (one of my grad students) and I spent about 5 hours preparing the drift fence for the upcoming breeding migration. By the time we left the pond around 3 pm, there was still snow on the ground and ice covering the pond all the way to the edges. It is supposed to be warm for the next few days with rain expected Tuesday...but the probability of rain is still low. Wednesday still looks like a possibility, but that could change.
3/9/07: As of today, I would anticipate our first possible public walk could occur on Wednesday evening (3/14). Keep checking the page for a daily or semi-daily update...bookmark it for your convenience.
Salamander Walk Scheduled for: TBA
Map to the Meeting Place - use parking lot of township hall across from Bath Elementary.
Email me if you want a google earth link to the meeting place.
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This Page Was Updated On: 05/05/2009 02:50:32 PM