With drought in an already dry Sandhills, we decide to go to Croatan National Forest on the coast. It is generally a wetter place, and though the drought has hit everywhere in North Carolina, we hope it will have more pools of water than here. When it comes to herping, you need to be open to reevaluating your situation and making changes to your plans.

Though there is more water in Croatan, it is still much lower than years past. There are ditches alongside most of the roads here, and they are usually full of pitcher plants and sundews, but most of them are withered and dried up because of the low water level. It's also very hot at midday, but we decide to drive around and scope out where we will road hunt tonight. The breeze from the open truck windows helps to cool us down a bit.

Road hunting is good this evening. We find a beautiful Southern Copperhead on a dirt road and spend some time photographing it. A Greenish Ratsnake is found crossing the road as the sun moves closer to the horizon and another just after it goes down. And of course we find a couple of Red-bellied Watersnakes. It seems they are ubiquitous in Croatan, and we often find a dozen or more on any given trip here.

While cruising the light grey gravel roads in the darkness, I notice some dark spots on the road. They're each an inch or two long, and I don't think much of them until I notice that they are moving. I stop the vehicle and climb out for closer inspection. As I kneel down under the bright light of the headlights, I see a large female wolf spider with dozens of tiny babies clinging to her back. This parental care is typical of wolf spiders, but I'm wondering what is attracting her to the middle of the road. Maybe this is where her prey also hangs out, or maybe she comes to brag about her children to the other spider moms.

We decide peak road cruising time is long gone and we should go to where the amphibians are. Not far away there is a swamp with a short bridge over it where we once saw a medium-sized alligator drifting through the Cyprus knees and algae. We're sure we'll find what we're looking for there.

As we pull up to the bridge with the full moon behind us, a Barred Owl lifts off from a branch a few yards away, drops close to the water, and silently glides over the swamp, disappearing into the night. The swamp is awash in amphibian lovemaking. Males are calling and fighting for the best courting spots. Pairs are in amplexus, caught in the act of slippery, slimy procreation. Pounds of eggs and sperm are released into the murky waters so that they may commingle and become natal tadpoles in gooey, jelly eggs. In time, the tiny creatures will wriggle from their capsules and out into the dark, dangerous waters that will be there nursery until they develop legs and lungs, so they may climb into a new world, with new dangers. If they are lucky, they will one day return to these waters to engage in the rituals of their ancestors, so this ancient cycle may continue.