Unfortunately a couple of Very Important Projects and an Emergency Situation came up over the last couple of days and interfered with getting out and doing stuff. Of course after I dealt with them they turned out to be Not Very Important and hardly an Emergency. Someday I’ll learn to defer action until I’ve been asked twice, thereby requiring Proof of Significance.

And, too, the promised storms and rain of Thursday never materialized. We had, literally, only a few drops, not even enough to wet the ground. That was very disappointing.

But this morning I’ll be going out to the State Botanical Garden to hike around for a few hours.

I have been listening to birds in the home area, and continue to hear pileated woodpeckers and great crested flycatchers off in the woods. And yesterday I saw briefly a Rose-breasted Grosbeak investigating the feeder, a first here.

I’m still trying to figure out the salamanders, and I’m not sure what I’ll do on the excel sheet except get down to family level, I suppose. Here’s a couple of aquatic individuals found on two separate days in two parts of SBS Creek. Not very good pictures but they do show the zigzag-like tail:




Actually it looks like it might be an Ocoee Salamander, one of the Duskies, Desmognathus ocoee. This Discover Life page shows a photograph of a similar salamander, and give the range with its southernmost point just two counties north of us. The SREL page also shows a photo of an individual with a similar tail pattern.