Berry Springs Preserve Herps of Texas report, 20Jul2019

Another great turnout of monitors had fun observing five species of frogs and toads at Berry Springs Preserve on the 50th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon. The evening started out with a large beetle found in the women's restroom - Mike submitted a picture of it to iNat, and it was identified as a Hardwood Stump Borer. We walked down to the middle slough springhead, then went over the footbridge to the boardwalk, hung out around the fishing deck in the main pond for a while, and returned to the parking lot along the slough by the playground. Blanchard's Cricket Frogs got up to their normal max Call Index of 3. We saw one female American Bullfrog (CI = 0) floating on top of an algal mat at the footbridge. Just like last month, Green Tree Frogs (CI = 3) were calling everywhere and we were able to catch one at the edge of the main pond. One young Gulf Coast Toad (CI = 0) was photographed near the small pavilion, but the big one in the water dish by the restroom escaped into a crack in the wall before anyone could take a photo. However, the highlight of the evening was hearing all of the Rio Grande Leopard Frogs again, eventually calling at CI = 3. It might have been because we stayed for two full hours after sunset instead of the usual one hour, but it was wonderful !! We were also lucky enough to get photos of a young one that was in the grass by the edge of the main pond.
The monitoring period was 20:30 - 22:30.
Participants were Kathy, Amy & Mike & Jimmy (welcome !), Diane, Mike, Hunter, Mary Ann (welcome back !) & Tobin (welcome !), Lynne, and Christie.
Environmental conditions at the middle slough springhead at sunset:

• Air temperature = 84.2 deg F
• Water temperature = 78 deg F
• Sky = No/few clouds
• Water level = Average
• Relative humidity = 43 %

Julkaistu heinäkuu 23, 2019 12:16 AP. käyttäjältä k_mccormack