Good Newts

At work, we've designated Thursday as Critter Counting Day. The idea is to create a database of animals seen on our so-called Epic Journey hikes (about 5 hours of trail time). This week, we had nine field classes, so lots of of different trails were taken.

We combined two field classes for a hike out to the reservoir because the route allowed van access, which was important because we had a boy on crutches, a girl with a mildly twisted ankle, and a girl with vision impairment. The boy was dropped off and picked up .6 miles from the reservoir, but made it up the hill on crutches and down it in our ATV pushcart (actually a jogging stroller, but we don't call it that because nobody ever wants to ride in a stroller), the girl with the injured ankle walked all the way there but accepted a ride back, and the girl with vision impairment did the whole walk.

At the reservoir, we counted 303 newts in the water, where they were mating and laying eggs. That's a record, although truth be told, I haven't counted every time I've gone on a hike.

There were some cute newt tracks along the trail too.

Here's the total count for the day: