Rare Find in Our Backyard

At least for me anyway

I was mowing the lawn yesterday and noticed the grass moving. At first I figured it was a snake, but to my surprise it was a Yellow Spotted Salamander. I thought it was pretty cool, and the boys thought it was even neater.

We’ve lived there for 7 years, and it’s the first time I’ve seen one. It was a big one too! It’s torso was almost the size of a bratwurst.

You ever find one? I remember finding the little blue spotted ones quite a bit as a kid, but haven’t seen many lately.

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So cool! I haven’t seen one for like 4 years.

Awesome! I found a big tiger salamander last year, and I’ve been finding blue spotted salamanders at the cabin fairly regularly. They’re such cool critters.

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Many years ago I lived in an old home with a lime stone basement and we had two of them that lived down there. One good thing was we never had crickets and spiders down in the basement.

They were everywhere in the backyard at the house I grew up in. My brother and I actually had two of them as pets for a couple years. Super cool animals, they’re always smiling!

I’ve also noticed them around my place lately, had not seen one in years until a couple weeks ago. Cool little creatures.

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Awww! They’re adorable! I’d be tickled pink if I found them in my yard!

I think it must have been a good year for reptiles. We typically see a lot at our place, but this year has been epic. We’re seeing salamanders all over our patio most nights and 1000’s of frogs and toads in my back grow plot. Lots of turtles laying eggs in the crop rows too.

Sharon wrote:

Awww! They’re adorable! I’d be tickled pink if I found them in my yard!

My boys or the salamander?

I can drop them off anytime Sharon

That’s a neat find for the boys. Salamanders are cool little creatures.

We used to find them all the time as kids growing up around Isanti. I don’t know if there were a lot of them around or I was just able to be outside that much more as a kid. But haven’t seen one yet up near Hinckley. Maybe the ground is too hard for them around me now..?

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Sharon M wrote:</div>
Awww! They’re adorable! I’d be tickled pink if I found them in my yard!

My boys or the salamander?

I can drop them off anytime Sharon

Both! But they might get smothered with doggie kisses! The salamanders probably wouldn’t enjoy that too much though.

We used to find them in the field around the 100 Twin Drive in. There were dunes and we would pull salamanders and toads out of holes they would make in the dunes. They made pretty good pets as they would take to being fed by hand.

Awe nice. Them salamanders and tree frogs are nice to find. Right next to the garter snakes or whatever that other one little one native here in MN. Them skinks too, always surprises me.

Cool pic of the kiddos with em.

Rare indeed, I’ve never seen one here in MN.

______________ wrote:

I think it must have been a good year for reptiles. We typically see a lot at our place, but this year has been epic. We’re seeing salamanders all over our patio most nights and 1000’s of frogs and toads in my back grow plot. Lots of turtles laying eggs in the crop rows too.

Salamanders, frogs and toads are amphibians, not reptiles. Turtles are reptiles.

Funny, I never saw one of those salamanders until last week at the school I coach at in Lake Elmo. A different teacher also happened to see one in Stillwater. Must be a good year for those guys.

They used to migrate through my grandpas yard by the hundreds if not thousands every fall. Don’t remember if they went from woods to swamp or the other way around. Last time I seen it was about five years ago. This year ive only seen one crossing the road. Wish it would happen again im sure my girls would love to see it.

Probably woods to water. Amphibians hybernate in the mud of a lake I believe. Maybe frozen mud in the shallows?

Ok, maybe not

underground

I saw no less than 200 of them from mid September to October 1.

walleyebuster5 wrote:

I saw no less than 200 of them from mid September to October 1.

That’s awesome

What part of the state?

On “The Farm” sometime in the mid ’60’s we found those under a light pole in and around a mud puddle. Never have seen one before or since.

Hopefully they are coming back.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>walleyebuster5 wrote:</div>
I saw no less than 200 of them from mid September to October 1.

That’s awesome

What part of the state?

Central MN, Stearns county