On any other rainy night I would be inside listening to the drip-drop comfortable, cozy and grateful for the warmth. I understand the importance of rain and the dark but I prefer to watch them from the inside out.

However, the first warm, rainy night of spring is different. That is worth venturing out for. For that is when the salamanders run.

Spring returns with a cacophony of sound and color. Birds and frogs sing. Flowers bloom and the world turns green again. In spring, lifecycles restart with gusto. However, salamanders, who are also continuing their lifecycle do so in the quiet, in the dark. So let’s shine a little light on them.

I should first mention that salamanders don’t actually run. This is just a common phrase that is used to describe the annual movement of these amphibians from their underground homes to a body of water to breed. They will cross roads, yard and forests in the dark.

Salamanders, like all amphibians, spend part of their life in water and part on land. They also have smooth, porous skin, which needs to remain moist, which is why they wait for rain (sometimes it may just be a heavy fog) to move.

This year, the first warm (above 40 degrees) rainy spring night was last week. In this region, salamanders move between mid March and mid April. In the office, we debated. Would it be tonight? Maybe it was too early. But the natural world works on environmental conditions, such as moisture, temperature and light rather than days and dates.

Reading those environmental conditions, a group planned to meet at a potential site after dark. We donned boots, rain coats and flashlights and ventured into the woods in search of the vernal pools.

Vernal pools are temporary wet areas that fill from rain or groundwater. At some point they dry out, preventing a permanent fish population. To the untrained eye a vernal pool may not look like much- a large puddle in the forest or field. They are also defined by a certain animal community. These indicator species, such as Spotted Salamanders and Wood Frogs, define this unique habitat.

Up the hill we marched, water dripping off raincoats. We poked around in what looked to be pools but only saw a few, very slow Wood Frogs. They were quiet, not calling. I started to doubt. Either this wasn’t a good site or this wasn’t a good night. Maybe it was too early in the season.

But we followed the sound of Spring Peepers down to a swamp. It wasn’t in the swamp but in the roadside ditch we began to see them. Despite being on the side of the road, this pool of water had characteristics of a vernal pool. There were leaves at the bottom, sticks and other vegetation emerging and no obvious surface input of water.

“Oh what’s that?” Everyone rushed over, shining flashlights on a black creature with yellow spots. A Spotted Salamander!

If vernal pools needed a spokesperson, the Spotted Salamander would be the perfect poster child. It is large (up to 8 inches long), has bright yellow dots and looks like it is smiling. It is adorable! Most of their adult life these secretive amphibians are under logs and rocks, in small animal burrows. On these warm, rainy spring nights, they may travel up to a half a mile to a pool to breed.

The males come first. They leave milky colored little packages of genetic material, called spermatophores, on the leaves at the bottom of a pool. Later, the females pick them up to fertilize their eggs. In places where salamander populations are high the salamanders roll and squirm and wriggle trying to entice females. On this particular night, there was little rolling or wriggling. But I’d like to go back there to see how many eggs were laid in this ditch. Do the salamanders think it will remain wet enough to lay their dozens of eggs in clumps on vegetation? Will the larvae that hatch have enough time to mature into adults before the water dries up? Is there enough food in the form of insect larvae and other invertebrates to full their rapid metamorphosis? Or will something happen to the road such as maintenance work or an accident that will affect the water quality?

There are many questions whose answers affect this event next year. Perhaps vernal pools need a spoke person- or “spokes-salamander”. Many of these salamanders return to the same pool, often the pool in which they were born, to reproduce. What do they do if the habitat is altered?

These pools are not just home to Spotted Salamanders but other salamander species as well as frogs. They share this habitat with a large number of invertebrate animals, some microscopic. Many more creatures come to the pools for food, water or a breeding site.

Aside from being a witness to this annual event, my favorite part of the evening was the people who were also out- in the rain- in the dark. They were not scientists or naturalists, or even crazy about amphibians. They were folks who were interested in seeing what was happening in their world.

We live in a cyclical world. In our social world we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries to mark the passing of time, to remember the past and look forward to the future. In the natural world we mark time through the changing of seasons and these natural events. There is a comfort that regardless of the changes in our personal lives, these harbingers of spring, like the salamanders, will still be there, if we pay attention.

Katie Finch is a naturalist at the Jamestown Audubon Nature Center located at 1600 Riverside Road in the town of Kiantone, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown, New York and Warren, Pennsylvania. Our trails and Bald Eagle viewing are open year round from dawn until dusk. For more information, visit our website at jamestownaudubon.org, or call (716) 569-2345.