Lake Creek Drizzly August Amphibian Watch Saturday 11 August, 2018

We looked at weather apps, looked at dark clouds, made a leap of faith, and were rewarded with a wonderful hour at Lake Creek.
Six of us braved the uncertainty, actually enjoyed a few intermittent drizzle periods, ignored the humidity and observed more that the expected numbers of amphibians. Thank you Mikael, Carolyn, Beth, Meghan, and Paula for joining me this month.

Environmental Conditions (at 20:15):
Air Temp: 24.2C
Water Temp: 28.1C
Sky: 5 (drizzle to showers)
Water Level: Average
Relative Humidity: 85% to near 100%
After a month of upper 90’sF to 108F, Austin was parched and standing water was getting scarce. Luckily for local wildlife, fish, shorebirds and aquatic reptiles, the area above the Lake Creek dam was still holding plenty of water. It was totally clear of floating algal mats. The dam was quite clean. We wondered if someone had washed it down, since there was no overflow debris like in July, and the creek bed below the dam had a few small pools of water which should have been dried up with the heat.

General Observations:
We saw just two very young Nerodia in the water, one Blotched ("Plain-bellied") and one Diamondback. Again, different from last month when we were constantly noting yet another snake swimming, or gobbling up hapless trapped minnows.

Amphibian Watch Report:
We detected four species this month.
The Blanchard's Cricket Frogs called intermittently the entire time we were at the monitoring site. There were several groups, first calling at a far distance (C2 to C3). We could hear them much better (C3) later at the limestone wall and have satisfactory recordings.
We heard groups of Green Tree Frogs calling from both sides of the lake area even as we approached the site to begin monitoring. They called on and off all during the hour and finally could be recorded at full chorus (C3) when we were at the limestone wall.
We took photos of a very large, fat Gulf Coast Toad (C0) at the wall, and saw several more, all out hunting in the rainy conditions.
To round out the ‘catch’ we have both recordings and photos of Cliff Chirping Frogs. The rain was really to their benefit, and they were happily calling from the limestone wall cracks. We often have photos, but only have one other recording, ever.

Glad we took the chance of getting soaked, and instead had a nice night out with lots of amphibians taking advantage of the first rain in a month.

Posted on August 12, 2018 10:24 PM by