Lake Creek Surprise Nice Weather Amphibian Watch Oct 12, 2018
We have had rain again for the last three weeks. I was concerned that there would be too much flow over the dam to be able to hear amphibians calling. It is fun to watch the snakes fishing in the flow, but the noise hampers our ability to monitor as scheduled.
And the temperature! It has still been in the 80's. Big shock though, as I am writing this (Oct 13) the promised cold front is passing through and it is a relatively frigid 41F. In one day - 80F to 40F.
Seven of us met at the dam and could hear well enough to complete the first 40 minutes of monitoring as usual. We moved to the limestone wall, as is our habit, for the last segment of monitoring.
Thanks Kathy, Myra, Carolyn, RuthAnn, Mary Kay, and Mikael for joining me.
Environmental Conditions (at 19:05):
Air Temp: 27.2C
Water Temp: 26.9C
Sky: 2 (cloudy)
Water Level: MAA+ (Much Above Average - Overflowing) - central half of the dam was still in overflow at a depth of 0.5 to 1.0 inch.
Relative Humidity: 84% on the meter.
General Observations:
The pond above the dam was still completely clear of any algal mats. Overflow water was pooled bank to bank below the dam, looking more like another little lake. We have not see this before.
Amphibian/Herp Watch Report:
This was a very quiet night at Lake Creek in terms of amphibian calling. Our visit to the limestone wall yielded the expected fat and happy Gulf Coast Toads including two youngsters each about 2 inches long. We also got recordings and photos of several Chirping Frogs. We are at the point of naming all of them Rio Grande Chirping Frogs rather than Cliff. The limestome wall borders a large suburban development and we think that the increase in chirping frog observations is due to their importation in landscape pot plants and in the favorable environment that housing , irrigation, and watering of pots and planters provides.
We did take pix of a small Nerodia spp. that RuthAnn caught for our enjoyment.
In all, one herp species and two amphibian species were documented for this month.
