Family-Outdoors

Spring bird migrations can be an extraordinary sight, and state game and management areas – especially those that encompass wetlands – are popular destinations for bird watchers who wish to observe the waterfowl and shore birds that wing their way north from wintering climes. There's another significant wildlife migration happening right now, one that can be just as spectacular but often flies below the radar. Michigan’s salamanders are on the move. “Salamanders are kind of a mystery,” said Tom Goniea, the fisheries biologist who oversees herptiles (reptiles and amphibians) for the Department of Natural Resources. “They’re mostly nocturnal or subterranean. Springtime is when people run into them the most because that’s when they’re moving over land to breeding pools.” Most Michigan salamanders are land-dwelling species that breed in the water, often in small, temporary wetlands. After their eggs hatch out, the creatures go through a larval stage until they mature and ...

When walking around in the woods in the spring or fall, you might come across a wicked big puddle, and if you look closely you’ll see that it is teaming with life! Look for egg masses of frogs (like the ones seen in the photo on the left) and salamanders, tadpoles swimming around or salamander larvae hiding under leaves. If you just bend down and look close, you will be amazed at what you see. Vernal pools are small wetlands that often fill up from rain, snow melt, or high groundwater in the spring or fall, and typically dry up by late summer. It is this seasonal flooding and drying cycle that makes vernal pools different from other wetlands and shapes what kinds of critters use them as habitat. Because vernal pools dry up, they don’t have fish, which are major predators on young frogs and salamanders. Vernal pools provide a safe haven for a diversity of frogs and salamanders, allowing the young to have greater survival than in other habitats like regular ponds. For some frogs...