The Natural History of Bodega Head

    Quick photo of a large Arboreal Salamander ( Aneides lugubris ) on Bodega Head today, 27 October 2025.  Although we only received ~0.2 i...

    Arboreal Salamander ( Aneides lugubris ) in the rain in Cotati on 28 December 2024.  

    I'm running out of time tonight, but here's a couple of quick photos of a beautiful Red-legged Frog ( Rana draytonii ) that we c...

    A couple of photos to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day!   Above, a Sierran Treefrog ( Pseudacris sierra ) framed by Douglas Iris ( I...

  During a short walk at Point Reyes today (20 January 2024), I looked down to see this newt crossing a path covered in pine needles.  My g...

    We had to move some material on the ground today (15 January 2024), and look who was underneath! Nice to see this beautiful Sierran Tree...

    A quick snapshot of a juvenile Arboreal Salamander ( Aneides lugubris ) — only ~3 cm long, photographed in Cotati on 14 March 2023. We...

    I took a short walk in Walpole, MA, today (26 September 2022).  I ended up at a small pond and started noticing a few interesting animal...

    Today's rain reminded me of this salamander that I photographed earlier in the month.  I think this is a Speckled Black Salamander (...

Last night I mentioned we went up to the Gualala River to look for toads.  Eric grew up with toads in his backyard and I used to interact wi...

    We were hopeful that today's precipitation would bring us some luck in finding a toad...and it did!  I'll write more tomorrow, b...

     A tadpole with hind legs (above)...  and a frog with a tail (below):     Sierran Treefrog ( Pseudacris sierra ) photographed 3 July 2...

    I wandered outside tonight with salamanders on my mind.  This is the first one I encountered — a young Arboreal Salamander ( Aneides lug...

    An Ensatina ( Ensatina eschscholtzii ) out for a New Moon stroll on 15 November 2020, just before the rain started.

During a neighborhood walk a couple of days ago, Eric peeked under a log and was surprised to see quite a gathering:   Arboreal Salam...

  At various times in the past, Eric has challenged me to find and photograph a frog for leap year.  I'm happy to say that 2020 is ...

  After ~2 inches of rain during the past 48 hours, I looked outside and spotted a couple of Arboreal Salamanders ( Aneides lugubris ) n...

You might remember that last week I tried to find a salamander and failed.  Tonight (16 January 2019), I was successful!   It's quite ...

Hmmph.  I thought it would be raining more tonight, and that I might be able to go out and find a salamander fairly quickly.  Perhaps there ...

  Ensatina ( Ensatina eschscholtzii ) out for a moonlight stroll in Bodega Bay on 26 November 2018...perhaps in anticipation of tomorro...