About Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum)

Comic credit goes to this site.

Spotted Salamanders are one of the most common ambystomids. I've only seen them run in the Eastern Panhandle once. It was on March 27th of the year. It wasn't a rainy night if I recall correctly, but it was pretty warm. I saw the spotties in a permanent pond in Sleepy Creek that just happens to be fishless (no connecting streams).
I've caught them in drift fences more often than any other ambystomid and almost as often as Red Efts (Notophthalmus v. viridescens).  But this next one was under a coverboard.

Spotted Salamander larvae (and most likely other ambystomid salamander larvae, and other candidates) also have  an interesting mutualistic relationship with  algae.
Now's the time to see these guys migrating to breeding ponds but if you miss that (awesome) event you can steal find the product of all that activity much easier.

Photo reference

Eggs are aggregated into globular masses that are surrounded by a clear mass of gelatinous membrane. The outer membrane will help you to determine if the egg mass if from Spotted Salamanders or Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus). Jelly on the outside = Spotted Salamander. Eggs on the edge of the mass = Wood Frogs.

On the topic of Corn Snakes (Pantherophis g. guttatus) in West Virginia....

A corny friend of mine.

Pantherophis guttatus guttatus
An attractive snake and one of the most common snakes kept in captivity. They're a dime of dozen animal, a normal hatchling can be purchased at a show for $15 or in wholesale lots for $3-4 each. In some parts of their range they are thick on the ground, much like Black Ratsnakes are in the Eastern Panahandle of WV. 
There are a grand total of 3 records for corn snakes in this WV. All of them in Morgan county, and all of them in the same general portion of the county. I've been roaming around the back roads of Morgan county at night for years, flipping stones along power line right of ways, and wading through dump sites, flipping mattresses and old lumber.  And I have yet to find the 4th record.
The corn snake is my white whale...

Don't let your eyes deceive you. This is a corn snake.

I've been publicly shamed for my failings when it comes to finding (or failing to find) this species of snake (Thanks, Dr. Pauley). I think this year might be my year. I' have a particular Nature Conservancy Park in mind that should be the jumping off point for my efforts. 

If anyone out there is reading this and has seen corn snakes in WV please email or comment.

I finally finished typing up the data for 2009...

At least from the Rite in the Rain book anyway. All that's left is the trap data from the storm water pond on west campus.
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Alright let me take a step back.
Over the summer I did a pretty general, very opportunistic survey of the eastern panhandle of west virginia. A lot of the work done was road surveys, but I did a lot of visual work too. I tossed over rocks, and sloshed through ponds and everything.
I'm going to do some more analysis before it's all said and done but here is the simpliest breakdown of what I found.

Total Species 32 (Which is out of a possible 62 that's better than 50%)

Species Break down by group
10 Anurans - American Toad, Bullfrog, Cricket Frog, Fowler's Toad, Green Frog, Grey Tree Frog, Leopard Frog, Pickeral, Spring Peeper, Upland Chorus Frog
10 Snakes - Black Racer, Black Ratsnake, Smooth Earthsnake, Worm Snake, Watersnake, Garter Snake, N. Ring-Neck Snake, Queen Snake, Timber Rattlesnake, Copperhead
1 Lizard -Five-lined Skink
7 Salamanders - Long-tailed Salamander, Redback Salamander, Red-Spotted Newt, Two-Lined Salamander, Northern Dusky Salamander, Northern Red Salamander,
4 Turtles -Painted Turtle (Eastern and Eastern X Midland intergrades), Snapping Turtles, Red-Eared Sliders, Box Turtles

What's interesting about the 2009 herping season is that I managed to finally start seeing some "new" species for me. Worm snakes, copperheads, queen snakes, long-tails, etc are all new for my life list. And some of them were more widely distributed than I first thought.
I put untold amount of man hours in this year. (Next year I'll probably try to count the man hours... try to get a little bit more quantitative anyway.) That's probably why I picked up so many new species.
I didn't pick up two species from the 2005 search, Milk Snakes and Hognose Snakes. This was a pretty big dissapointment. In the case of the hognose snake I was in the same area all saw them before twice in 2009. I guess you take whatever you can get.
I still haven't seen Wood Turtle and Stinkpots in my "surveys" even though I did see them quite frequently years ago. I'm suprised I haven't seem them since.
I did attempt to build aquatic turtle traps this year, and in our two week trial run the one we tried out worked very well, even without bait.
I'm looking forward to more sampling with traps in 2010.