Smallmouth Salamander

Since Beth was in Lexington Tuesday night with Mary Kay, I decided to head over to Charlie Vettiner Park and do some detecting. I headed toward a huge open field I was sure would yield few finds, but do to a lack of recent research, I was basically out for the fresh air. One lone tree stood in the middle of the field. I searched around it for a few minutes and got a hit on something that ended up, like I expected, to be a piece of aluminum. However, in digging for it I came across this ugly little cuss a few inches down. In my limited searching of the web, I think it is a smallmouth salamander.

The picture on top is from the web, the one on the bottom taken with my cell phone. It's blurry, but the toes are identical to the "web specimen." He's lucky I didn't slice him in two. I gently buried him back under the tree. Hopefully he will survive the ordeal of being dragged from hibernation. If anyone thinks this is a different critter, let me know.

I also found $.37 in clad. Besides Mr. Slimy, the neatest find was a Coca-Cola bottle cap. Usually, bottle caps are a nuisance, but this was different. It was obviously off an actual glass Coke bottle. It was in great shape except for the edges being bent in. The top was shiny and looked new. It read "Instant Winner" & Coca-Cola in the famous script underneath. I turned the cap over and I saw the familiar blue-green rubber disc with writing underneath. It was good for (1) Free Admission to an Early Bird Matinee at Champs Roller Dome at any participating Louisville or Lexington location. Unfortunately, I'll have to keep my skates in the closet. The expiration date was 10/31/84. DAMN IT!

(I'll post pictures when I get more booty)