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We had great weather for salamanders on January 2nd/3rd. I went out on the third. 11°C between 7.30-10.30 pm. It had rained a lot the day before. I have yet to count how many newts and salamanders we found in total, but as usual there were more newts than salamanders out.





One of two salamanders we rescued from a gully.








Does anyone know what happend to the eye?










The crest was already developed quite well.








I bet a nice number of slugs and worms went into this male.

Sandra,

Along with other posts,great to see some herps so soon after Christmas, I forget how beautifully coloured and patterned alpestris are.

The weather in the UK is perfect for salamanders at the moment.. unfortunately we do not have any!

Regards

Paul

Hi,

very nice pictures!

I also tried it last night at a new location for me, 9°C, rain and a perfect habitat, but sadly I wasn't successful.
Today the next try at one of my known populations...

Lucas

Good stuff! I had a little over 80 Salamandra last night. Will perhaps add some details to my usual thread sooner or later.

Thanks guys! Yeah, because the alpestris are so common, one tends to forget that they are actually a really pretty species.

@ Jeroen: Looking forward to your pics!!! Meanwhile, I had the time to count my findings: 27 salamanders and 93 newts.

Sandra Panienka wrote:Does anyone know what happend to the eye?

That type of whitish skin becomes visible whenever the eye is opening or closing (although there might be more going on here).

The salamander wasn't blinking. The eye-socket appears to be much smaller compared to the one on the other side.

Nice shots

It warmed up a bit during the last couple of days and I got kind of curious and went out with a good friend of mine to see if there were was any rana activity. Temperatures dropped down to 5°C after dark and it started to rain.

We found just one adult fire salamander ...


And some surprisingly big larvae.


Some smaller larvae.




We discovered two temporaria males inside the pond ...


... and this really big male was one the move.

Wow Sandra, that´s nice! Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Laura