I am in upper central NYS. Fairy shrimp should be starting up soon, within 3 weeks. We've had a lot of snow, which usually means when it melts, it will wash a lot of eggs from the substrate around the ponds back into the ponds and we should have a banner year. Years with little snow result in few to none.

Anyone else watching fairy shrimp in their area?

We have several stable vernal pools where they occur. These are good pools for salamander breeding and I am sure the fairy shrimp are an important part of the larvae's diet. We even have one salamander- the marbled salamander- which is not even supposed to occur in this county (Albany) but reproduces in one large pond where fairy shrimp occur.