Amphibian Migration
It was raining and in the mid-40s as I drove up the Santa Cruz Mountains on April 7th. The mountain tops were covered in mist, so I decided to hike a trail about three-fourths of the way up from Skyline Drive.

At first it didn't look like it would be the best day to be out finding herps, but then I saw this California Newt - the first of 88 seen in a half mile walk.

Some of the newts, like this one, were carrying eggs and getting ready to lay them.

Three newts meet on the way to their breeding grounds.

California Newts have yellow bellies to advertise the fact that they are poisonous - people have died from consuming them.

This waterfall went right across the trail that I was walking on.

A few Ensatinas were also seen out enjoying the rainy weather.

This is the path I was hiking on when I saw the amphibian migration.

The path led to this small lake.

American Bullfrogs have invaded many areas of California, outcompeting with native frogs.

The overflow for the lake was in this cement structure, which had a newt trapped inside of it.

Apparently the amphibian could not scale the walls of the overflow structure, so I went in to save it.

After making my rescue, a closer observation of the newt revealed that it had no eyes. It seemed to be healthy otherwise, so I released it into the nearby woods.

Because it was so cold out, the fence lizards in the area were almost black, to absorb more heat.

Banana Slugs (shown with penny for size reference) seem to like bad weather.s (shown with penny for size reference) seem to like bad weather.

Some careful searching revealed several Alligator Lizards.

Eventually the weather cleared up a bit.

Later that night Pacific Chorus Frogs were out calling in full force.