These little buggers are everywhere this time of year. This is an adult red eft, a species of salamander that spends a good portion of its life in water being gobbled up by small mount bass. The adults leave the water, to find small vernal pools to lay their eggs in. Then when the eggs hatch the babies stay in these small vernal (temporary spring pools, basically, large woodland puddles) until they dry up. Then the immature salamanders make their way back to the water. The immature salamanders are a BRIGHT NEON ORANGE, so finding them is easy and we often count how many we see on our summer hikes. Adults are brown with telltale red dots along their backs. (see picture)