By Julie Reardon

Just when you thought you’d be reading another story about spring flowers and the beauty in the hunt country this time of year, we’re here to tell you about other springtime arrivals: the slithering and slimy creatures that make their appearance when the weather warms up. Virginia has a wide variety of amphibious animals, salamanders and frogs, that start to get active as the weather and water they live in or near warms. Perhaps no sound is more welcome than the chorus of the spring peepers, little gray frogs that start to sing on the first warm nights of spring or even late winter. These singing frogs are of the treefrog family and rarely get larger than an inch, making their singing even more impressive as to carry on, it takes a chorus of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Even if you live in a suburban area, if you’re near wetlands, a stream or pond, you’ve no doubt heard them sing. But you rarely see them: they’re only about an inch long and are mostly tree dwellers except when first born.

Salamanders, too, call Virginia home and are occasionally seen in spring and summer. They differ from lizards (reptiles) in that they have thin, moist skin instead of scales. They have blunt rounded heads, long slender bodies with short legs and long tails. Their feet have four toes instead of five, like a lizard. Generally voiceless and with some living on land under logs and leaf debris and some aquatic, many species are endangered. The ones you’re most likely to see are red-spotted newts, black spotted salamanders and occasionally hellbenders, that are mostly aquatic and one of the larger amphibians growing up to 15 inches or more.

Frogs and toads are plentiful everywhere with many making their homes in suburban back yards as well as rural areas. The aforementioned spring peepers are rarely seen but often heard, whereas other frogs and toads we do see regularly can be quite vocal as well. Frogs and toads have large heads and eyes and wide, usually toothless mouths. Some can extend their long tongues for capturing insects. Frogs in this area spend the winter in a state of torpor, burying themselves in mud near water or in the bark of trees. When they awaken the males vocalize to attract the larger females, that they then cling to fertilizing her eggs. She lays her eggs in water where they hatch into round-bodied long tailed aquatic larvae called tadpoles or pollywogs. They’re born with gills that later get covered with skin while it transforms into a ground, tree or marsh dwelling adult with lungs.

Toads have shorter legs and warty skin that secretes an irritating serum that is poisonous to some small animals but just an irritation to humans. You may have seen the family dog try to catch a toad and then let it go after foaming and frothing at the mouth. Toads also attract mates by calling and lay their eggs to hatch into tadpoles in water.

Turtles are usually everyone’s favorite reptile, with the exception of the snapping turtle. They are the oldest living group of reptiles, dating back to the dinosaur age. They have a characteristic rigid covering: the upper part is the carapace and the bottom part is the plastron. Both are made up of bony plates called scutes. Most species have dry, scaly skin and can withdraw the head and legs into the shell and close up. Some species are vegetarian, some omnivorous and some carnivorous. They have no teeth but sometimes a sharp beak that can snap shut with considerable force. The box turtle is commonly seen in our area, it has a high domed carapace in patterned shades of dark and yellow or orange and is 5 to 6” long. Also common near ponds are painted and spotted turtles; they like to bask in warm weather. And of course, the granddaddy of them all: the snapping turtle. This fellow can reach up to a foot and a half or more carapace length and cannot retreat in its shell completely like his smaller cousins. His beak can cause considerable damage; they are best left alone if encountered.

Several lizard species call Virginia home. They can be distinguished from salamanders by their dry scaly skin and most species are not aquatic. The most common ones seen here are the Eastern fence lizard and the five-lined skink. The five-lined skink is a fascinating little creature and often basks quietly near humans on patios and decks. The juveniles have bright blue tails. If a dog or cat catches one, it’s usually by the long tail, that then detaches and the skink escapes. The skink will grow a new tail, however, much to our dogs’ disappointment, the tail will not grow a new lizard. The detached tail, however, will wiggle and twitch for a good 10-15 minutes.

Finally, we come to the snakes. The most common snakes found in Virginia are racers, rat snakes, garter snakes and brown water snakes. Less commonly seen are hognose, corn and king snakes. There are only two venomous snakes found here, the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake. The brown water snake is commonly confused with the water moccasin, or cottonmouth, but it’s just a non-venomous look-alike. Moccasins have never been seen north of the Dismal Swamp in SE Virginia and are not common there. Racers and rat snakes are actually useful neighbors as they eat other snakes and if you have them, you aren’t likely to have copperheads or timber rattlers. If you somehow find one in your house, it’s most likely a rat snake, also known as a black rat snake; they seem far less shy about making their homes near human activities. While of course you don’t want them in your house, I release outside unharmed because in addition to other snakes, they eat mice and rats so provide excellent rodent control. As the official snake wrangler of our farm, I’ve herded a few black rat snakes into plastic containers with a broom to put them outside where they’re useful.

One cautionary note: I’ve heard a few snake experts say we are likely to see more copperheads this year as they lie in wait around and under trees for cicada carcasses. I’ve never seen one on our farm, and don’t think we’ll have the predicted cicada apocalypse this year because we had one in 2013 so our next shouldn’t be until 2030 but you might want to keep an eye out.