Notes from the Field: Tracking Amphibian Migration

Spotted salamander crossing the road.

Spring is the time of singing frogs, damp trails, and the slow, purposeful crawl of life returning to water.

📍 Location: Newfane, VT

📅 Date: March 31st, 9PM

🔍 Field Overview

Every spring, as the temperatures rise and the rain falls, amphibians begin their ancient pilgrimage from forest floors to breeding pools. In this blog, I document my first field observations during the first peak migration conditions.

Target Species: Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus), Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer), Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens), and American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
Weather Conditions: 59°F, light rain, cloudy
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent
Migration Triggers Observed: first heavy spring rain, nighttime temps above 45°F, consistent wet conditions all day

🐾 What I Saw

Early Movers
The first wave began around 8:30 PM, the Wood Frogs were out moving, they could be heard loudly by the road and there were multiple mortalities on the road from early movers crossing.

I saw no salamanders around this time, only frogs were out.

Peak Activity
By 9:30 PM, the road was alive!

Multiple Spotted Salamanders were emerging all over the road, I counted 8! Tons of Spring Peepers emerged and they were all tiny little guys! One species I have never seen migrating before were adult Eastern Newts! I moved around 5 of them off the road headed towards the vernal pool.

Noteworthy Observations

I observed two spotted salamanders in a small pool close to the road hanging out and waiting for their friends to arrive, later in the night around 10:30 they left the small pool towards the direction of the larger one
I heard a Wood frog chorus just over 15 feet away down a steep slope next to the road.
I moved 7 Wood frogs and 8 Spring peepers

🌧️ Challenges in the Field

There was a lot of car traffic! I had put out Salamander Crossing signs on both sides of the migration channel to warn cars to slow down for volunteers and amphibians, but very few cars actually slowed down. I was extra vigilant and was glad I was wearing reflective clothing. Also, I had the help of spotters who called out to warn me when cars were approaching so that I could stay safe. I definitely recommend these safety steps for anyone else helping with amphibian crossings!

🧠 Field Notes & Insights

This season has been interesting because it has been very cold, and there hasn’t been a lot of rain at night, making the perfect conditions for migration hard to come by.
I haven’t observed the “big night” yet and am hoping it will come in late April when things warm up more. More field nights to come!
Getting data on these sites is important for conservation work, even knowing where there are roadkill hot spots could help put volunteers there next season.

🧭 Next Steps

I will continue monitoring at this site and hopefully see larger numbers of amphibians migrating when conditions are warmer.
The data I take and other volunteers take on these nights in this area goes to Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, Salamander Brigade program. They have years of data tracking where there are hotspots and where populations have died down.
New volunteers are always welcome to join!