April 9 Monthly Lake Creek Amphibian Watch
It was a big "herp' night.
The weather was mild (70F) and overcast, calm winds, so we had hopes for a good spring turnout of amphibians. Five of us had plenty to do listening as well as looking for herps of all types.
Participants:
Thanks Kathy, Bill, Mikael and Carolyn for joining me on this fine evening,
Environmental Conditions:
Air Temp: 21.6C / Water Temp: 21.2C / Sky: 2(cloudy) / Water Level: AA/ Rel Humidity: 60%
Observations:
We spotted a nice mid-sized Blotched Water Snake lounging in an inch of still water on the down-creek side of the dam. It obliged us for a while and we managed a few pictures with our cell phones.
The Blanchard's Cricket Frogs started calling even before sunset and continued to call in full chorus (C3) waves more often during the monitoring hour from 7:55 to 8:55.
We heard a lone American Bullfrog calling a few times, and I was lucky enough to record about 5 seconds of his call.
Rio Grand Leopard Frogs were calling occasionally all during the hour, but they were hard to record given the volume of the cricket frogs.
I have one recording, but Kathy McC's was better: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2913226.
The pond area above the dam was about 50% covered with thick algal mats. This seemed to suit the cricket frogs which appeared to prefer to sit in and on top of the mats to call rather than being in the open water. We have several very good photos of them and I even made a video of one very accommodating fellow just calling away right in front of us all.
That's it for April 2016 from Lake Creek. Until next month!
