In cleaning up our backyard this weekend we found some pretty interesting creatures. We raked, piled and moved our leaves to the very back of our property. (About half an acre) In the raking process, we discovered lots of earth worms, grubs, sow bugs (aka – rollie polies), crickets, spiders and lots of little crawlies. Our most interesting discoveries were a baby snake that I uncovered yesterday and a salamander that we uncovered today.
We’ve been in our house for almost a year and a half now and we have had nothing but the best of intentions of cleaning up the backyard properly for ages now. The terrain back there has a ton of potential, but has some rough areas and the leaves haven’t been properly raked in ages. So, we took on the task this weekend. That’s how we discovered our little animal “friends” (I had to use the quotes because I simply cannot refer to even a non-poisonous snake as a friend) in our backyard. I wish I had gotten a photo of the snake so that I could identify him. I feel pretty confident in assuming he was non-poisonous, so that’s good. He was maybe 6-8″ long, tan in color on top and a grayish looking color underneath. And, he was fast. I didn’t take a picture of the salamander either, but I was able to identify it via National Geographic‘s website. It appears that we have spotted salamander living in our yard. Here’s a stock photo that looks pretty similar to the one we saw:
That’s a pretty cool looking critter, huh? All I saw at first was the tail as it skittered beneath our pile of leaves we were moving onto the tarp. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t another snake, so I moved the leaf pile and discovered it was a salamander. He was a pretty nice size and plump too! We got him to move away from where we were working and he burrowed into some brush near the fence.
I have to admit that it was pretty interesting and exciting making these discoveries right in our own backyard. And, yea, it was a little scary too. I have a phobia of snakes and finding that little fella as I was raking DID unnerve me, if I’m being honest, but I didn’t want to harm him at all. It’s really great living in an area that has remained pretty well wooded so that we get to see these kinds of wildlife. Our neighborhood has a great variety of wild animals including hawks, squirrels, rabbits and all sorts of birds. So, it’s great to see all of those plus make discoveries here at home!