Jim Andrews’ boots went splodge, splodge as he trudged along a waterlogged ditch in the mostly pathless Blueberry Hill Wildlife Management Area in the town of Ira on a hot July morning.
His gaze flicked from side to side, alert for the slightest movement. He was already wet to the knees from a thus far unsuccessful brookside hunt for the skittish spring salamander, a slimy amphibian colored the ugly pink of calves’ liver.
“What are we finding?” Andrews called to Cindy Sprague, a volunteer assistant from Huntington.