{"id":12344,"date":"2013-03-13T15:54:37","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T20:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12344"},"modified":"2013-03-13T15:54:37","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T20:54:37","slug":"slithering-salamanders-usher-in-spring-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12344","title":{"rendered":"Slithering Salamanders Usher in Spring Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-000-cropped-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12347\" title=\"post ss 000 cropped 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-000-cropped-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-000-cropped-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-000-cropped-480-300x166.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Yellow Spotted Salamander<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tuesday night, March 12th, brought torrential rain, southerly winds and rising temperatures to Southeast Massachusetts.\u00c2\u00a0 Perfect conditions to kick off the annual spring congress of yellow spotted salamanders.\u00c2\u00a0 As we watched storm clouds roll in and the sky darken, we decided to check\u00c2\u00a0local hotspots after dark for our slithering friends.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-001-twosome-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12349\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-001-twosome-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-001-twosome-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-001-twosome-480-300x295.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Yellow Spotted Salamander Heading to Congress<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As we bounced down backroads to the wetlands and carefully negotiated flooded puddles, we observed wood frogs and American toads hopping across the asphalt.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><object width=\"480\" height=\"360\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/KMbkZ_N4kIE?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"480\" height=\"360\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/KMbkZ_N4kIE?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Rocky Road to Congress<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Deeper into the woods, our headlights captured the first\u00c2\u00a0yellow spotted salamander\u00c2\u00a0 slithering across the dirt roadway.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-107-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12359\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-107-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-107-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-107-480-300x242.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Congress Aftermath with Salamander Spermataphores<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this abandoned cranberry bog, male salamanders congress in shallow channels and deposit spermataphores along the reeds and leaf matter.\u00c2\u00a0 We returned to the bog this morning to check for congress locations in the daylight, which were easy to identify from spermatphore deposits.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-101-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12355\" title=\"post ss spermataphores 101 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-101-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-101-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-101-480-300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Closeup of Salamander Spermataphores<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Females have yet\u00c2\u00a0to deposit\u00c2\u00a0egg sacs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-102-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12357\" title=\"post ss spermataphores 102 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-102-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-102-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-102-480-300x269.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Salamander Spermataphore (Closeup)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We will check these locations again this evening and through the weekend to follow the rest of the process.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-001-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12353\" title=\"post ss spermataphores 001 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-001-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-001-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/post-ss-spermataphores-001-480-300x258.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Yellow Spotted Salamander Spermataphore<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Turtle Journal photo-documented a spermataphore.\u00c2\u00a0 The image above shows one of the spermataphore deposits with a dime backdrop for perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 Clicking on the image will double its size.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><object width=\"480\" height=\"360\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/7O-AJBR8IuM?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"480\" height=\"360\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/7O-AJBR8IuM?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Yellow Spotted Salamander Up Close and Personal<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yellow Spotted Salamander Tuesday night, March 12th, brought torrential rain, southerly winds and rising temperatures to Southeast Massachusetts.\u00c2\u00a0 Perfect conditions to kick off the annual spring congress of yellow spotted salamanders.\u00c2\u00a0 As we watched storm clouds roll in and the sky darken, we decided to check\u00c2\u00a0local hotspots after dark for our slithering friends. Yellow Spotted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[826],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12344"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12387,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions\/12387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}