It’s April, in the woods, keep a lookout!
Spotted salamanders may move about.
They return to the same pool every year.
Carnivorous adults eat what is near.
Insects, worms, spiders, millipedes, and slugs
Under rocks, or damp logs, they look for bugs.
Such wondrous creatures can regenerate,
Growing back limbs and organs gaining weight.
They secrete noxious toxin from glands,
To dissuade predators from their wetlands.
They are less secretive on rainy nights,
All headed to breed in vernal pools.
There can’t be any fish to eat their young
Males congress in groups with females among.
Spring ritual, a magical courtship
Fossorial except for such a trip
Laying eggs, one hundred, in a round clutch
The masses look and are slimy to touch.
Hidden until foraging or breeding,
Floodplain forests are what they are needing
In upland woods they are hibernating
Let’s make sure they are proliferating