What a surprise to find this little orange fellow in the garden recently! Actually I saw three of them in the yard on the same day. I think the recent rain brought them out. Red efts are the land form of the red-spotted newt that lives in water and is quite prevalent in the Eastern US.
Seeing them reminded me of a story my mom used to tell about me as a little girl. We were camping and my brother and I were out and about, amusing ourselves. We found lots of these red efts in the woods, picked them up, put them in our pockets and brought them back to show mom and dad. Mom loved to tell that story. And I’ve loved finding red efts ever since. They make me smile.
