Finished with our pond-hopping, we headed to the shallow stream we had visited five weeks earlier, when it was covered in ice and snow.  I was still pulling on my boots when Todd found the first Streamside Salamander, under the first rock he lifted.  Getting your target species early takes the pressure off the rest of the day, but as it turned out that wouldn't be a problem here.  The stream flowed over limestone bedrock, with plenty of large, flat rocks in the water and along the banks.  We walked slowly upstream, raising rocks as we went, and found Streamsides in abundance.

Ambystoma barbouri are closely related to Ambystoma texanum, the Smallmouth Salamander, and bear a resemblance, although I found the Streamside's mottled blues and grays much more appealing.  While both are woodland dwelling salamanders, they differ in habitat preferences for breeding - Smallmouths favoring ponds and other slow-moving bodies of water, while Streamsides do their procreating in shallow streams.  Smallmouths have a wide range across the middle of the United States, while Streamsides are only found in southern Indiana, Ohio, and northern Kentucky,  It appears that in the distant past some A. texanum adapted their breeding strategies, taking them out of the competition for the vernal pools and wetlands.

There were a number of drop-offs in the stream bed, and the resulting waterfalls helped to keep fish from reaching this far upstream.  This gave Streamside eggs and larvae a better chance at survival, although other predators such as crayfish and water bugs would take their share.  Here and there we lifted a rock to find A. barbouri eggs attached to the underside.

As winter begins to fade, male and female Streamsides make their way to nearby streams (and ponds on occasion) to court and breed.  The males start things off with a vigorous wriggling and circling of females, pushing and prodding other males in the process.  Eventually the males deposit spermatophores by pressing their cloacas to the substrate.  Once attached, they move off, and sometimes other males will deposit spermatophores on top of those of their rivals.  The females then move in to pick up the spermatophores, lowering their cloacas on top of them.  Within several days the females will lay a set of fertile eggs, attaching them in a single layer to the underside of rocks in the water.  Multiple females may use the same rock.

Todd called us over to look at one of the salamanders, which had lifted its tail upward and was waving it about.  This defensive posturing is well documented in a number of ambystomid salamanders - I had seen several Smallmouths do something similar.  After waving its tail for a while, the salamander pointed it forward over the top of its head.  A funny looking pose to be sure, but probably an effective one - a predator would likely get a mouthful of expendable tail instead of the irreplaceable head.