‘Big Night’ Bust

You don’t know exactly when the ‘Big Night’ is going to be, but it seems you can get a good idea a few days before it might happen. It’s supposed to be a night in March, potentially April, when the temperature is relatively warm, the humidity is high, and its raining. Last year, from what I gathered, there wasn’t a ‘Big Night’ or if there was, I definitely missed it and I didn’t hear about it. If you are wondering what the ‘Big Night’ is, that’s understandable, I didn’t know there was a name for it until last summer. It’s when the perfect conditions of weather I described above drives Salamanders to their breeding ponds. This is usually the best time to see many of the Mole Salamanders (Family Ambystoma) that spend much of their time underground and out of view. 
I was determined to get the right day this year and with the warm weather we had been having I was getting ready for it to be any night. I normally check the forecast pretty frequently, but knowing that the ’Big Night’ could be coming, I was checking it more than usual. Then it appeared: Monday, March 9th was going to get into the 60s and there was rain coming, a large system covering Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. That’s it. That was the day to go out. I knew where I wanted to go as well: a forest in my hometown that I have frequently discussed here. I hadn’t seen any salamanders there yet, but I felt that the site was too good to not have them.
Monday night was upon us, the rain was supposed to start at 9 pm and continue through the night. Murphy and I decided we’d go out at 10, thinking that enough rain would accumulate to get things moving and it was early enough that I wouldn’t be a total zombie at work the next day. We arrived to the forest opening to minimal rain and began searching around the edges of the closest vernal pool. We flipped logs and looked through the leaves; we scanned the edges of this first pool but came up with nothing. We commented on the disappointing amount of rain and then moved on to the next pool.

The following pool was more permanent than some of the other pools and would often have water in it through August. This pool last year produced many Spring Peepers, but no salamanders; I was hoping that might change this year. As Murphy scanned the pool edge, she began to see movement and yelled that she spotted a large crayfish. Soon other movement began to catch our eyes as well and we realized we were seeing a multitude of tadpoles flee from our own movement. But tadpoles this early? They couldn’t be this year’s and many of them were really big. Then I remembered that some tadpoles will overwinter in ponds and go through metamorphosis the following spring, species that do this include Bullfrogs and Green Frogs. Although not incredibly exciting, these tadpoles represented my first herps of the year!
From there we moved on from this pool to check another nearby pool. Again we flipped logs and scanned the pool edges. I waded into the pools, waiting to see a tail slipping through some leaves near the bottom of the pool or a flash of yellow spots from a Spotted Salamander, but nothing revealed itself. We decided to call it quits after some time and headed back home, salamander-less. 
The next morning I woke up and hopped onto Instagram, knowing that the Midwest herpers I follow would be sharing their finds from the night before. Sure enough, I was seeing people having their ‘Big Night’ in West Lafayette, IN, Toledo, OH, and undisclosed locations in Southeast, MI. Frustration festered in me, “how could we be so close to getting it right??” I said angrily, throughout the day. But then I realized, yes, we were close, we had the right day, which meant I had learned since the year before. Clearly though, I hadn’t learned everything, such as the time of night (try early morning) I need to be going or even the proper site to go to. Another thing I realized in my next day frustration was that going out and herping shouldn’t be about me; I should be happy for those other folks who had more successful outings than I did, they found salamanders which is the whole point, not who is finding them, but that people are still finding them. In this time where habitat destruction is rapidly occurring and fungal diseases* are killing amphibians, we need to be happy that they are still being found, by anyone.

*A recent article is calling into question the impact chytrid has on amphibians