Lydia,

A small additional note on your salamander: While it is not strange to have
the yellow dorsal stripe be solid, as in your photo, most of the indivuals
in our area have broken or irregular yellow stripes. The relatively large
head and the
long middle hind toe distinguishes your specimen from a Western Red-backed
Salamander. The Western Red-backed Salamander - Plethodon vehiculum - will
occasionally have a more or less yellow dorsal stripe (the stripes on that
species vary from a
more or less dark brick red to yellow, but if yellow, usually not quite as
yellow as in your photo.) I'm reasonably confident your specimen is indeed
a
Long-toed Salamander - Ambstoma macrodactylum as Kelly indicated (and I
would usually bet on Kelly being right on most ID questions in this area.)
On the Snipe, I too first thought of Wilson's Snipe and your description
fits reasonably well. It is about the most
likely to be flushed out of a wet meadow habitat (though that meadow may be
dry in summer) at this time of year
without having been seen first. It will typically land not too far away and
once again be hard to distinguish from the background, as it has excellent
camoflauge in this habitat. I don't remember its call, but your
description seems to fit my pretty vague memory of what it might have
sounded like. There should be numerous call notes of this species to listen
to on the internet. I often use the word "audio" (you could also use
"video") as a search term to find audio clips. Cornell's website almost
surely has an audio clip.

-Stewart

Stewart Wechsler
-Ecological Consultant - Nature Guide
Naturalist - Botanist
206 932-7225
ecostewart at quidnunc.net
-Advice on the most site-appropriate native plants to maximize the site's
potential for native biodiversity
-Educational programs, nature walks, and field trips for schools, public and
private groups
-Botanical Surveys


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelly McAllister" <mcallisters4 at comcast.net>
To: "Lydia Bishop" <gizacat at mac.com>; <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2009 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Bird and Herp Questions


> Ah, Lydia, I have a good hunch on the birds and a definite answer on the
> salamander (nice picture, by the way). Your descripton of the birds make
> only one bird come to mind, the Wilson's Snipe. The salamander is a
> Long-toed Salamander, Ambystoma macrodactylum.
>
> Kelly McAllister
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lydia Bishop" <gizacat at mac.com>
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2009 2:29 PM
> Subject: [Tweeters] Bird and Herp Questions
>
>
>> Hello Tweets!
>>
>> First is my bird related question.
>>
>> We are enjoying watching our winter - spring wetland filling up and
>> awaiting the ducks, geese, and heron to fly in for rest stops.
>> Something is already living in the wetland and I've not gotten a good
>> look at them to make and ID. Our property is just outside of Snohomish.
>> The birds seem to be hunkered down deep in the shrubs and wetland grasses
>> (no cattails). There are quite a few of them and when I've been out
>> mooshing around in the mud taking photos I spook them and they fly out
>> making an annoyed "scraaaaach." I think they may killdeer or some other
>> shorebird. They don't really sound like killdeer. When they fly off they
>> seem to be gray, beige and dark gray in color. Their wings are a bit
>> angular when in flight. They just fly from one part of our wetland to
>> another. I don't recall seeing or hearing killdeer this past summer
>> either. Any idea what sort of birds they are?
>>
>> And now my herp question:
>>
>> While slithering around under the house in the crawlspace my husband
>> found a strikingly marked salamander. It was a deep, dark reddish brown
>> with one very yellow stripe going from the back of it's head all the way
>> down the tail. Here is a link to a photo I got of it:
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/gizathecat/4103505409/
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Lydia Bishop
>> Somewhere near Snohomish, WA