You Never Know

Two weeks ago Murphy flipped a board and under it was spring. By that, I mean a board was flipped and under it were two Red-backed Salamanders. I wasn’t present for this moment, but when I saw the picture I was as excited as if I had been there. To be honest I was jealous so the next two days I went out to a forest in my home town to do my own flipping.
The first day out was stupid, really. It was chilly, it was late afternoon and looked like it might end up snowing or raining on me. But in my mind I had to get out there; salamanders MAY be out and I did not want to miss a single one. Just before entering the woods I turned as a strong wind blew around me and saw that ominous clouds were heading right towards me. I went into the forest anyways and began flipping logs that were manageable. Flip after flip turned up nothing, I grew frustrated and antsy wanting desperately to see something. The clouds rolled in and it began sprinkling.

”Okay,” I said to myself, “I can handle a little rain, not a problem.”

The rain drizzled on and I continued flipping. But as the clouds moved over, the wind picked up. I watched the trees overhead sway several feet in either direction, relying on their extensive roots to hold them into the ground. I continued flipping, while simultaneously scanning the overstory for dead branches and dead trees that may break loose in a gust of wind. I was really hoping that if a branch struck and killed me I would’ve at least found a salamander by then, but no log revealed those soft, wriggly sallys.
So the very next day, I decided I would go out to the same forest again. Although nothing turned up the day before I wanted to try it anyways. Really I was blinded by pure jealousy; Murphy already found her first Herp of the year and I wanted so desperately to find mine as well. This day would be different though, it was warmer and I was going to venture into an area of the forest that I hadn’t really explored too much. I started walking and stopping to flip logs here and there. Although I wanted to check out a newer area of that forest, I didn’t want to head straight there, so I meandered through sections I flipped the day before. Then it happened. No, a salamander was not found under a log. Instead it was a sound, a sound quite unmistakable, a warning sound to some. It was the drumming of a Pileated Woodpecker. Now I’ve seen Pileateds several times and I’ve written about them in a few posts, but every time I see of hear a bird at a new site, it’s just as exciting to me as seeing it for the first time. Plus, this is just a really cool bird. When I heard it, i was nowhere near it, but I could tell that it was near the area I was going. So I began to heading that direction a little more directly, continuing to flip as I walked. Every few minutes I would hear that drumming, still coming from the same direction.

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Large vernal pool, believe it or not, there is a trail that goes through this.

To get to get to where it was I needed to wade through a large vernal pool. I came prepared that day with rain boots, knowing that I was going to have to need to traverse this pool to get where I was going. I began wading through and it was much deeper than I was anticipating, with water less than an inch away from cresting my boots and filling them with water. As I moved through, I heard the panicked splashing and flapping of birds. I quickly glanced over and saw a flock of about five ducks vacating the pond and weaving through the trees. No doubt, they were not used to intruders in this flooded section of the forest. With no good look I had to assume they were Wood Ducks, a cavity nesting species that could be nesting in holes created by the very Pileated I was looking for.
I continued to move towards the drumming and it was very close at this point. I began scanning for dead trees that it may be on and finally I found it at the very top of a snag, rapidly drumming on a piece of bare wood. The drumming would continue for 3-5 seconds and then pause. In those pauses, the Pileated and I both heard something: loud, soft, tapping in the distance. This was the reason behind the drumming in the first place. Pileateds drum for a couple of reasons, one of which is that they are letting others know that this is their territory. So not only was I able to visually confirm that there was one Pileated, but I was also able to confirm with a fair amount of certainty that there was also another one in the vicinity.

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Best shot I could get of the Pileated, shot with my phone through my binoculars.

Despite the fact that I came away from that hike without seeing what I went out there to see, I was able to see something I hadn’t yet experienced at that site. I left with an important reminder to myself: you never know what you might see if you go outside.

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Other side of the large vernal pool.