January 10th, 2015

I was walking thought the park with Joel bemoaning the fact that there was nothing interesting to take a picture of when I almost stepped on this:

This is a rough-skinned newt! It was just crossing the path, very slowly, it was only 41 degrees outside!

I learned some interesting facts about rough-skinned newts (thanks Oregon Coast Aquarium!) :

1. Don't eat them, they are poisonous. You can touch them, your skin won't absorb their toxin, it might make you itchy. They secrete a neurotoxin that is very similar the puffer fish and blue-ring octopus, it causes paralyses and death.

Amazingly I didn't touch it. It did take all my will power not to scoop it up and bring it home. You can ask my mom about my love of amphibians........

2. They are terrestrial. That means they spend most of their time on land. They only lay their eggs in the water. Large numbers of them will migrate to ponds or streams. I am going to have to keep a look out for this in the spring.

Check out that rough skin!

3. They can grow to be about 8 inches long, this one wasn't quite that big.

4.They can be found along the coast of North America from British Columbia to California.

5. When they are not making their home near pools and streams they live in the leaves, mossy crevasses, and in rotting bark.

6. Their knobbly skin can range from dark grey to reddish brown. Perfect for hiding in all those leaves!

Joel and I made sure the newt made it safely across the path and watched it hid under the leaves. If we hadn't watched it there would be almost no way of finding it!

I also took some landscape pictures too:

and this macro:

Hope you have a great night!