Hanken, James 1975 Journal 15 Apr: | Hastings Reservation, Carmel Valley Monterey Co, Calif Yesterday afternoon between 1600-1900 hrs I collected three vernal pools on the Blomquist property on Haystack Hill for larvae. One pool, the first to be encountered when walking from the pump house along the Old County Rd, is ~20-25' across to a maximum depth of 14"/16" ~18" partially submerging the grassy vegetation. The second, largest pool is NE of this first pool, elongate and at least 200' long by 50-75' across. Maximum depth appears to be at least 2-3'. The third pool farther W along the Old County Rd, is >100' long by ~60-75' across, to a depth of at least 2'. All three pools fill in the rainy season with rain runoff and usually dry up by summer. All are used to water cattle. Three Taricha torosa larvae were found yesterday in the first pool by dragging a dip net through the vegetation along the bottom. Only a few attempts were needed to find these larvae and several Hyla regilla tadpoles. Working the other two pools in a similar manner for over an hour and a half found no newt larvae, but several tadpoles ranging from ~1 cm to over 3 cm. A repeat visit today turned up five more newt larvae in the first pool, but none in the other two. The newt larvae range in size from ~2.5 cm to >4 cm; five were taken as specimens. No Ambystoma were found. Last night between 2200-2300 hrs, I got