[obol] yard bird list and (off-topic) salamanders

[Linda Fink]

Son and grandson have been here for several days so I'm just now 
catching up with OBOL and reading the yard list reports. I have seen or 
heard and identified 133 live species on or flying over our 45 acre SW 
Yamhill-County farm since we moved here in 1977. (It might be 134 if 
Joel Geier would have let me count the quite dead presumably-Western 
gull floating in our pond some years back.) I have seen and heard 
who-knows-how-many-more unidentified species. Some that should be easy 
are missing from my list because I'm just not sure... But that means my 
list can yet grow. :-)

Salamander off-topic question: While cleaning out the debris below the 
spillway of our dam with my 6-year-old grandson yesterday, we came upon 
a very large salamander -- maybe 8 or 9 inches (I didn't measure it), 
brown, very large head, definitely aquatic as it tried to hide 
underwater. I presumed it was a Pacific Giant since we've seen and 
identified one of those here (same location) in the past, but when I 
checked my field guides (fallible, I realize), Pacific Giants have 
mottled coloration and this guy was plain brown. Was it a larval form? 
Some other salamander? I would have written to the person who sometimes 
comments on salamanders on this list but can't remember who that is.

Linda Fink