Reptiles and Amphibians

 the frogs are croaking in the swams and marhes; their notes do not differ from those of the Atlantic States; they are not found in the salt marshes near the entrance of the river. Merriweather Lewis, March 29, 1806.  Near Deer Island (likely Sauvie Island), along the Columbia River. Also referred to as the Pacific tree frog, […]

Big mouth–hidden under the final log with a worm and centipede for a meal. I exclaimed Rare species! but it’s common, fossorial lives in moist woods under cemetery stones and memorials. —-From Exponential Decay Function,  Robert Ronnow These are large salamanders (up to 8 inches long) of the family Ambystoma – the mole salamanders.  Mole

Ambystoma maculatum– Big mouth–hidden under the final log with a worm and centipede for a meal. I exclaimed Rare species! but it’s common, fossorial lives in moist woods under cemetery stones and memorials. —-From Exponential Decay Function,  Robert Ronnow These are large salamanders (up to 8 inches long) of the family Ambystoma – the mole

Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment – a little makes the way of the best happiness.  Friedrich Nietzsche. These are large (11-18 inches long) lizards of the American southwest – within the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts from southern California east to southern Utah and Nevada, western Arizona,

The men on the expedition felt overwhelmed by their most ancient memories in that paradise of dampness and silence, going back to before original sin, as their boots sank into pools of steaming oil and their machetes destroyed bloody lilies and golden salamanders.  – One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez This is a