In the woods, underneath the leaf litter, Saly, the spotted salamander, is sleeping.  Since she is cold-blooded, she is waiting for the world to warm up with a nice warm rain.  The first few drops hit the leaves above her and start soaking into her cozy little home.  She starts to wake up from her long winter nap and moves the leaves to the side to peak out for the first time in months.  It must be time!

Saly crawls out from under her leaves, poking her little nose out first.  Knowing that all of her friends are waking up and heading to the same spot, spurs her into motion and she starts heading her way to the pool where she knows she can find them.

No matter how excited she is, Saly knows she must be careful as there are dangers between her and the pool.  Some of those dangers are things like skunks, snakes or even raccoons that might try to eat her.  She can’t stay out in the open for long, but she really wants to see her friends!

As Saly moves through the woods, she comes to the weird short walls that she is familiar with crossing.  She’s heard others refer to them as railroad tracks.  Since there is no big rumble vibrating the ground, she knows they are safe to cross today and finds a good place to cross where the ground is a bit higher. She climbs over the bars and continues on her journey.

Oh no!  There’s now a road in between Saly and the pool.  That wasn’t there when she went to sleep last fall.  Saly walks up and looks at the road.  It is so big and smells so bad!  When she looks closer, she sees some other animals that weren’t able to make it across the road, but Saly is brave and knows she needs to try.  As she moves to step onto the black surface, she notices a shadow on the road that seems to be coming from a sign that has her picture on it.  She starts to feel a rumbling under her feet and sees a car heading right for her!  Right before the sign, though, the car slows down and even turns around!  Saly decides to take that as a sign that she should move across the road as fast as she can.  

Saly is getting tired; there have been a lot of things that have tried to keep her from her friends in the pool.  First, she had to watch for other animals that might eat her, then the railroad tracks and finally the road.  But she can see the pool up ahead and her friends are already in it!  She can also hear the wood frogs making their quacking sounds and the spring peepers singing their peeping song.  So, she runs into the pool and starts swimming for her friends!

As soon as Saly gets into the water, she notices that the water tastes a little different, even salty, but now all of her salamander friends are swimming over to her. They all start their beautiful spring dance.  The boys swim in circles around her and the other girls touch their heads on her back as they swim by.  Saly appreciates their dance by touching her little face to the boys’ bodies.  The dancing goes on all night!  

As the sun goes down the next night, Saly wakes up and finds presents that the boys left.  She picks up a present with a special spot by her tail, knowing that within the next three days, she will lay eggs.  This makes Saly remember a few years ago when she hatched out of her own egg in this very same pool.  She felt so tiny and had special gills that were outside of her body to help her to breathe.  Once the water in the pool started dropping, she remembered her gills getting smaller and eventually going away as she started growing lungs and legs.  Eventually, she was able to move out of the pool and make the dangerous journey to her home in the woods.  Making this dangerous journey every year has made Saly the smart salamander she is so that she can return every year to her pool.  

Now that Saly has laid her eggs, she hopes that her babies will also survive their own dangerous journey. It is time for Saly to return to her home.  She heads out of the pool and back towards her burrow in the forest.  As she makes her trek this time, she comes upon a weird pile of white crystals by the road.  These crystals seem salty like the water and Sally worries about how this new water might affect her babies in the pool.  Will this be a new danger on their journey to survival?

Saly once again makes it across the dangerous road, the railroad tracks and even avoids all of the predators in the woods. She slides back down into her burrow and finds a yummy earthworm snack – perfect to fill her belly before she rests from her long, dangerous journey.

While Saly rests, can you all think of ways you could potentially help to make Saly and her babies’ journeys safer to and from the pool where she breeds.

Written by Carrie Bassett. Published July 2, 2025