Is that a fish?

I walked the edge of a small pond Saturday, June 17, carrying a glass jar half full of clear water and a long handled minnow net. Of course I had a 6-year-old partner tagging along. He wanted to see and hold a "baby" salamander. We gave it our best try. He dipped up two, and I dipped up several.

The small spotted salamander larvae were about 2 inches long. My assistant carefully picked them from the net and dropped them into the jar. The larvae were easy to see swimming in the clear water. I sat the jar on a stump and took several photos. This is one of the best. We watched them, talked about them, admired them and then my young friend returned them to their pond home.

What looks like a bad hairdo is actually soft external gills that collect oxygen from the water so the salamander larvae can live. Their food consists mainly of tiny aquatic insects, such as mosquito larvae called wigglers.