Rain and Little Buddies

The recent rain has been bringing all kinds of things out in the garden, including our little buddies, the Western Spotted Salamanders.

The ginormous green thing is a standard garden hose. Yes, this is a teensy weensy salamander. We wondered if we still had a breeding population of these little cuties, and apparently we do! I've been laying down pavers with hollow places and bark under them, where they'll get light winter sun and acceptable summer shade, in the hopes of keeping our garden slugs down by natural means. I think it's working!

One of the adult salamanders, on a half-inch garden stake next to the garden hose. Blurry, but you can get an idea that it's about 4 inches long including tail. I've seen bigger and smaller ones in the past 3 years, as well as once an albino one-- adult, so it clearly found good places to hide.

Are there fewer slugs around? I'll put a cautious "maybe" on that. But every little bit counts, and I've always loved salamanders!