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Health & Fitness

Salamander Thoughts - By Hannah Moskowitz

Growing up with salamanders and frogs.

For 10 years, my daughter Hannah has spent many raw rainy nights on Beekman Road during the salamander migration, always with a big smile on her face. She has been in the vernal pools countless times and with a pair of waders on is in the middle before I've even reached the edge. It's a special place for her and walking the road or being in the pools together has always been a very special time that we've been able to share. She was home last Tuesday from George Washington University where she is studying Environmental Studies and was able to be out on the Big Night. A few days later she sent me this beautiful passage about being out on Beekman Road and what it means to her:  

"It is the sound you first hear. The sounds that to an untrained ear sound a lot like a bird, maybe, or an unfamiliar animal call. But as you listen closely, you realize that they are all individual sounds. As you make your way down the road, the sound gets louder and louder. Using your flashlight, you scan the road for whatever they say you should be looking for. Looking to both sides of you, you do not understand what kind of small amphibian could navigate through the seemingly vast forest framing this road. Your mind gets lost in your thoughts and fears since you are on an unfamiliar road in the dark, but then all of a sudden something in your stream of light catches your eye. It looks as if it is part of the road, it is yellow and black, just like the road you have been walking. But then you look again and it seems to have moved. Crouching down, you see a mass of flashlights now quickly walking towards you seeming excited that you may have found something. You realize that you did, you found your first spotted salamander. This is what you are looking for; this is what you have been patrolling the road attempting to save. You feel a sense of happiness that you single-handedly found this creature and brought him to the other side of the road to mate and continue his life. You were part of a movement to save lives, and you did. 

You finally decide to see where they are heading, why they are trying to cross the road. You turn to enter the woods, and each step you take, the sound gets louder and almost overbearing. Your thoughts are now lost within your mind, because you can no longer hear yourself think. But somehow, you still feel as ease. You look around; using your other senses now because you can hear nothing but the sound, and dodge the prickers while you take in deep breaths of the crisp, forest air. All of a sudden, the ground feels different to you and you find yourself sinking in a bit. As you were navigating through the brush, you had been looking down; you finally look up and see this pool in front of you. By the volume of the sound you figure out that this is the source. You realize that this is the vernal pool that the salamanders are making their way to. You shine your flashlight around, still not knowing the exact source of the sound. On a branch close to the edge of the pool  you see a small frog. A spring peeper, you think, because you know you are there to help save them too. But how could this little frog be making all the noise, you wonder and are amazed. You look again into the pool and see a spotted salamander gracefully swimming around through the leaves. It finally hits you; you were a part of saving these helpless critters. You, yourself, are there to save them, to keep them out of harms way, and you, are a part of why they are still alive."

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