Monday, March 03, 2008

Late Winter Summary, part 1

Things have been real busy in the Basin lately. It’s been a while since I posted here, but the work that’s being done is down right awesome! Dr. Hardin Waddle, Tyler Thigpen and I have been conducting visual encounter surveys in the Basin at night, usually three to four nights a week. When we encounter a herp, we (when possible) measure, age, sex and look for abnormalities. We also gather data for average wind speed (mph), air temperature in °C, relative humidity and substrate the animal was using. I could sit here and type for hours with the experiences we’ve been fortunate enough to have, but I’ll try and summarize with a collection of photos from the field. We’ve seen a great many things worthy of posting…..so I’ll try and break it down into parts. I should also note the central newt, Notopthalmus viridescens louisianensis that was found by Scott Hunnicutt in Plaquemine. We also tallied a newt, but it swam away before we could get pictures. -James

central newt, Notopthalmus viridescens louisianensis:










spring peeper, Pseudacris crucifer:


















Cajun chorus frog, Pseudacris fouquettei:



















Cope's gray treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis:

















green treefrog, Hyla cinerea: