Mood: a-ok
Topic: Out in the Field
I have been out, mainly at Camp Cullom the last three days. Wednesday afternoon, before the CIFW meeting I did some dip netting and rock and log flipping. I netted a few tadpoles (greens most likely) and found a two lined larvae. I also saw a ranid jump in, probably a northern leopard frog and a spring peeper jump in. Nothing of too much interest.
Yesterday I went out again to Camp Cullom and showed Todd Pierson around. He brought some minnow traps and found a few smallmouth salamander egg masses as well as netted green and bullfrog tadpoles. Also saw a leopard frog and two midland painted turtles. We then headed off to Bryan Woods Nature Preserve to flip some logs. Nothing happening there yet. On the way home we stopped at one of my FrogWatch USA spots, the pond behind the Old WalMart, and heard a single chorus frog calling.
This afternoon, we met Todd again to check the minnow traps. At the upper pond nearest the Nature Center, in the traps were 1 of the unisexual hybrid triploid salamanders, 5 male smallmouths and one HUGE gravid female smallmouth, as well as a few tadpoles. Two of the bullfrog tadpoles had back legs! A few ranids were observed jumping in at a distance, as well as chorus frogs and spring peepers calling.
At the big pond at the dam, a female painted turtle was basking as we approached. In one trap was 6 male Tiger Salamanders, 1 male smallmouth and 1 female hybrid triploid. The other had 1 tadpole.
The Marsh, vernal pool at the bottom had one trap with 37 male smallmouths and 1 female smallmouth. The other had 22 male smallmouths. A Northern Leopard Frog was caught my Todd at the Marsh as well.
A total of 75 salamanders from 7 traps!
Sadly, our camera decided to try to swim, and failed. Todd took many pictures that would be so much better than mine anyway, so I can’t wait to see them.
Posted by wendellsfrogblog
at 10:51 AM EDT