Look what I found while I was doing some fall garden cleanups in my yard.

It's a blue spotted salamander black body with bluish gray spots, smudges on the side.

It's relatively common in the Great Lakes region, especially where there's rich soil, maybe in a deciduous woods or a coniferous woods.

In this case, in my vegetable garden under a board, when I lifted it up, there it was.

Now it's only about 45 degrees out today, so I'm thinking this salamander is getting ready to hibernate under ground.

Sometimes in log piles, sometimes down under rock piles.

So I don't want to keep this one too long.

As an adult salamander in the spring, it will make its way to a vernal pool or a shallow seasonal pond.

The females will lay up to 500 eggs and the males will fertilize those eggs.

And the little larva that hatch only about a centimeter in size will live their first two years in the water.

Eventually, they'll metamorphosis into an adult salamander.

This one is probably a full grown adult, and in this case, spend its time in my vegetable garden eating things like centipedes and slugs.

So there are welcome visitors to my garden.

They have an interesting ability to wriggle their tail if they feel like they're really threatened and a predator thinking that that's the head of the creature can grab that tail.

The tail can break off, and eventually the salamander will grow a new tail and live to see another day.

The other fun thing about blue spotted salamanders is that their front feet have four toes and their back feet have five.

So that's kind of a fun thing for blue spotted salamanders.

If you happen to find one.

Make sure you count the toes.

Well, this one's starting to wriggle, which means it's starting to warm up.

So I want to get it in a spot where it can start to cool down and get ready to hibernate.

Remember, you can find your own outdoor elements when you visit area parks and natural areas.

We'll see if you.