These two amphibians are particularly interesting to me. The Sirens because of their short limbs and ability to to survive periods of drought by borrowing into the mud. In fact those shown here were found in a roadside ditch that likely dries up at times. I was able to catch some by dipnet at night. I could see them by shining a flashlight into the shallow end of the pool. They are said to make audible noises but the ones I captured did not make any noises, possibly because I transferred them from the net to a plastic container (I made sure it had never been exposed to soaps or chemicals) only long enough to take some quick photos and with minimal disturbance.  The four toed salamanders I had made plans to specifically search for, but as fate would have it I lifted a piece of wood near a small pool at the head of a tiny stream, and there was a four toed salamander. At that time no snakes were seen at the sight. During the heat of summer, I took someone with a fear of snakes to this same location having told them there's unlikely to be any snakes there. This proved to be untrue as apparently during the heat of summer the snakes decided this was very suitable habitat and we saw a black rat snake and timber rattlesnake.

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