Lake Creek Humid Fall October Amphibian Watch [14 October, 2017]
Pretty stuffy for October and we had plenty of mosquitoes.
We had a nice group (8) for late in the season. Thank you Bill, Kathy, Reggie, Linda, Mikael, CR and Jessica for coming out with me this month. Welcome to Jessica on here first ever amphibian watch and to CR on his first visit to Lake Creek.
Environmental Conditions (at 19:00):
Air Temp: 26.1C
Water Temp: 28.2C
Sky: 0 (clear)
Water Level: AA – Above Average
Relative Humidity: 74%
We had no wind and very little ambient traffic noise which both made listening conditions especially good. The algal mats had reformed on the apron of the dam and around the edges of the pond above the dam.
General Observations:
There were still quite a few dragonflies cruising above the water. However, general activity overall was much less that pervious months. We did not see any bats. We also did not hear any owls, which was unusual. The area was quiet, so if they had been calling, even at a distance, we should have heard the hoots.
Amphibian Watch Report:
- We heard no Blanchard's Cricket Frogs calling the entire time we were at the monitoring site. Reggie netted one and we got photos.
- We did hear Rio Grande Leopard frogs. There were at least three small groups, with an individual or two calling on and off. At one time we had overlap of several individuals from different areas. I managed to get one barely adequate recording, but Kathy got a much better one as she was standing right over one group.
- We had a great deal of success searching the limestone wall. There were 3 to 4 different chirping frogs seen. I got adequate photos of one.
- The most abundant amphibian around the walls was the Gulf Coast Toad. We have seen one or two in the past months, but we caught and took pictures of 3 individuals and saw 3 to 4 more.
