Red-backed Salamander, Brighton Massachusetts, mid-90's
Brighton is a borough of Boston, west of the city proper, on the Charles. It's a densely populated neighborhood of students and immigrants with at least 3 hospitals, and the sprawling campus of the Boston Archdiocese. I lived there, right of off famous Commonwealth Avenue (known mainly for BU and BC) in the last remaining house on a street with two hospitals, a methadone clinic and an apartment building. We had a small back yard, remnants of the landlord's decades-old garden, that we held pagan rituals in. One day I was cleaning up debris from the yard and found 21 red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus).
