Susan Pike

1 day ago | seacoastonline.com | Susan Pike

Susan PikePortsmouth HeraldOne of my favorite memories was when we first moved to Maine, over 30 years ago, and discovered vernal pools (our house was surrounded by them). Vernal pools are seasonal forested wetlands that fill with water from snowmelt and spring rains, only to dry up by mid-summer. They provide a handy fish-free environment in which some of our local amphibians and many invertebrates (dragonfly and damselflies for example) love to lay eggs, thus avoiding hungry fish.

1 week ago | seacoastonline.com | Susan Pike

Spring is here, but the signs of spring are slow to come. Most of the woodland wildflowers have yet to push up through the leaf litter on the forest floor.

2 weeks ago | seacoastonline.com | Susan Pike

It is salamander season again! This is the time of year when our local amphibians will be migrating back to their natal pools to mate and lay eggs. We were recently talking about amphibians in class, noting that amphibians are one of those evolutionary links between land and the ocean. Amphibians can survive out of water due to tougher skin (so they will not dry out easily) and the ability to breathe air- usually with lungs, but sometimes through the skin.

2 weeks ago | fosters.com | Susan Pike

It is salamander season again! This is the time of year when our local amphibians will be migrating back to their natal pools to mate and lay eggs. We were recently talking about amphibians in class, noting that amphibians are one of those evolutionary links between land and the ocean. Amphibians can survive out of water due to tougher skin (so they will not dry out easily) and the ability to breathe air- usually with lungs, but sometimes through the skin.

3 weeks ago | usatoday.com | Susan Pike

I spent too much time this past weekend trying to get a great action shot of the red-winged blackbirds at my neighbor’s pond. You know how sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees? In this case, I couldn’t see the blackbirds for the cattails. The blackbirds would pop up occasionally into my line of sight above the mass of cattails that line the pond, but as soon as my camera was ready, they dove back down again.