Hot Newts

There's a canyon on the southern California coast with a creek running through it that apparently has water in it year round. Consequently, many California newts reside in this creek, and every spring, when the time comes for the adult newts to start making more newts, male newts will seek out the nearest available female and glom onto her, forming a large ball of newts seething with cold-blooded passion.

The newts, most of which were around eight inches long, engaged in these rituals mostly just clung to each other without much movement, but sometimes their ball would roll downstream a little when it got caught in a current. This all takes place in a very still, shallow area of the creek, so we had an opportunity to snap a few shots of them:

Newts 1

Newts 2

We also got a chance to get a great look at a young western skink (it's about three inches long). This picture doesn't do it justice; that tail is a brilliant neon blue.

And a frog!