10 April 2013

Last night we finally took a night to rest after 5 straight days/nights of herping and I had every intention of writing this post. But wouldn't you know it our internet was down, so I'm doing it during my lunch today. It was a pretty good weekend here in central Missouri. Jenna and I decided to head out Thursday night and see if you could find any frogs. The high that day was 58 degrees and it was still in the mid 50's when we arrived at Forum Nature Area about 8:30 p.m. In the ponds there were calling Boreal Chorus Frogs, Spring Peepers, Southern Leopard Frogs, and Pickerel Frogs. Jenna also found some salamander egg masses that appeared almost ready to hatch. Unfortunately I decided not to carry my camera bag that night which contains all my spare SD cards. This would have been handy since the card out of my camera was in my computer at home.

On Friday night the 5th, Andy joined Jenna and I at Forum again. The temperature was warmer that day with a high of 67 degrees. The same frogs were calling as on Thursday night. Andy found a Common Snapping turtle baby that appeared to be deceased for no apparent reason. Jenna caught the smallest salamander larvae I have ever seen. It was less than 1/2 inch in length. I didn't get a picture of it that turned out. After a while we walked to the 3M wetlands and looked there. The same frogs again. Here are a few pictures from that night.

Smallmouth(?) Salamander Larvae in egg mass

Smallmouth(?) Salamander Larvae in egg mass

Frog Eggs

Boreal Chorus Frog (Pseudacris maculata)

On Saturday morning Jenna and I met Ryan at Three Creeks CA to look for snakes. Under the first rock Ryan flipped was our one and only snake of the day.

Northern Red-bellied Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata)

Northern Red-bellied Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata)

We also found 15 Five-lined Skinks. Ryan thought it would be a good idea to fasten one to his nose until it drew blood.

Skink on Ryan's nose

Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)

Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus)

After a couple hour nap, Jenna and I decided to visit Strawn Road Park. The birds were happy with the 74 degree weather on we thoroughly enjoyed listening to them. Especially the Louisiana Waterthrushes.

The trees are ready to leaf.

We found a shy Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata ornata)

The warm temperatures also bring out the nasty critters.

 Later that evening Jenna had a 5k with some friends so I visited Grassland Trail at Rockbridge Memorial State Park. All I found were a few more peepers and chorus frogs. Here is a picture I stole from Rochelle of their 5k.

Sunday was my favorite day of the weekend. Jenna and I got up and decided to drive to Montgomery country to visit one of our favorite areas. We weren't in a big hurry since early in the morning it was only in the low 50's, but it didn't take it long to reach the high of 76 degrees. We flipped rocks like crazy. Not too long into our adventure I found this .

Little Brown Skink (Scincella lateralis)

After about 6 hours of searching we had turned up seven Prairie Ring-necked Snakes, an Osage Copperhead, a Western Wormsnake, a handful of Five-lined skinks, and more than 20 Prairie Lizards. We also enjoyed the company of Northern Parulas, Louisiana Waterthrushes, Black-and-White Warblers, and our first of the year Chipping Sparrows. Here are a few pictures from Sunday.

Prairie Ring-necked Snake(Diadophis punctatus arnyi)

Jenna holding the Prairie Ring-necked Snake(Diadophis punctatus arnyi)

Osage Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix phaeogaster)

Osage Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix phaeogaster)

Western Wormsnake (Carphophis vermis)

Small Bluets (Hedyotis crassifolia)

Here are a couple pictures of Jenna and I taking photos of the Copperhead.

Sunday night, Quentin and Andy invited us over for a BBQ and herping. While Andy was grilling, it started to rain. After we ate it was still raining. When it comes to finding herps, you can't let rain stop you. We got drencehed, but found several Northern Watersnakes, a ton of Ring-necked Snakes, several Southern Leopard Frogs, and our first of the year American Toads. It was raining so I didn't have my camera.

On Monday night we all went out again only it wasn't raining. It was still in the mid 70's after sunset after a high of 78 degrees. The amphibians weren't out in force like the night before, but we again had a lot of Northern Watersnakes, a lot of Ring-necked Snakes, a Bark Scorpion, and a Red-bellied Snake. Here are some pictures from Monday night.

Neonate Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon)

Prairie Ring-necked Snake next to a quarter

 

Striped Bark Scorpion (Centruroides vittatus)

Northern Flicker Feather

Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon)

Northern Red-bellied Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata)

Between 2:00 this morning and noon, Sanborn Field here on MU's campus has reported .92 inches of rain. If the weather holds in the 50's until after dark, it could be a good night for amphibians. We'll just have to see.

Edit - 10:06 p.m.

Jenna and I spent a couple hours cruising some gravel roads in the Missouri River floodplain in the rain this evening/night. After dark we saw one toad that evaded capture and two Southern Leopard Frogs. Other than that, we could hear some distant Spring Peepers and Boreal Chorus Frogs. The temperature was 54 degrees the entire 2+ hours we were out this evening and we had almost 2.25 inches of rain today.

01 April 2013

The last week and a half of March was pretty busy, so I didn't have a chance to get outside much. It's not like I really would have anyway, because we had another snow storm that dumped 9.6 inches on Columbia. However, Easter weekend this year was the last weekend in March and we had plans to drive to Snake Road in southern Illinois to look for migrating snakes. As the weekend got closer, the weather was not cooperating. They were predicting highs to be in the upper 50s and a chance of rain for the Snake Road area. Jenna and I began searching for somewhere else where we could spend our three day weekend, and we decided that we would make the trek to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in southwest Oklahoma. We had one goal and one hope. Our goal was to find a rattlesnake since they are apparently as common as dirt and our hope was that we would see an Eastern Collared Lizard.

I took off work at lunch on Thursday and packed the car and Jenna was able to leave work not too long after lunch, so we were able to leave Columbia around 2p.m. We weren't planning on leaving until 6p.m., so this allowed us to be able to spend more time at the refuge. We stopped for night in Chickasha, OK which is less than an hour from the Wichita Mountains. We woke up early Friday morning and were on the Refuge at 7:15a.m only to find that we were pretty much restricted to the main highway until 9a.m. when they opened all of the gates to let us in.

Sunrise in the Wichitas

We did find one parking lot that didn't have a gate and walked around a little lake. While walking we observed some deer and three beavers.

North American Beaver (Castor canadensis)

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

The campground opened at 8:00a.m., so we decided to try to get a spot by the lake. We were just in time because there was only one left. We set up camp and headed to the visitor center. The visitor center has a lot of neat displays and a gift shop. Here is a picture of Jenna testing her wingspan.

 

We asked the lady behind the information desk if she had any recommendation where we could find a rattlesnake. She gave us a funny look and said, "Everyone else wants to know where they can hike and not see a snake and you guys want to hike where you do see one." She looked at the weather on her computer and told us they probably wouldn't be out that day (Friday) because it was only in the low 70s, but they should be out on Saturday when the temps got into the mid 80s. As far as the location..."They are absolutely everywhere." This built our hopes.

After leaving the visitor center, we decided we wanted to walk a trail. Very randomly, we picked to climb Elk Mountain; a moderate hike of two miles uphill and two miles back down. The hike up was pretty uneventful and view from the top was pretty spectacular.

Elk mountain provided us with our only two bird lifer sightings. There were Rufous-crowned Sparrows and Canyon Wrens (Jenna heard a Common Poorwill later that night giving her three lifers, but apparently I wouldn't wake up even with her trying to shove me awake).

Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps)

Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps)

Canyon Wren (Catherpes mexicanus)

We stopped a few times on the side of the mountain. Two times was to help Jenna get back up after falling. Neither time hurt her too bad, but she was a little scraped up and bruised by the time we got to the bottom. Here are some photos I got some of the other times we stopped.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)

Southern Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus consobrinus)

Southern Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus consobrinus)

Back at the bottom of the mountain there was a small stream. It looked like the perfect place to find some snakes or frogs. After looking around for a while, we decided the herps down here were a bust. Just as we gave up and started heading back to the car, I a large lizard dart under a rock. We sat for almost 20 minutes waiting for it to come back out.

Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)

Our hope was realized. We were a little disappointed it wasn't a bright male, but we still had the rest of the afternoon and another day to look. We decided to head up Mount Scott and see what the fuss was all about. The road was really narrow with a steep precipice off the side. Here are some pictures from Mount Scott.

We took a couple more short walks on the way back to the campsite. It's a little different hiking with these guys roaming around:

Texas Longhorn (Bos taurus)

American Bison (Bison bison)

We also stopped by a couple prairie dog towns and saw a scissor-tailed flycatcher on the way back to camp.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus)

Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

 After Jenna made some delicious supper, we walked down to the lake and watched a lightning storm skirt off to our south.

And then there was a little relaxation before I was out like a light and Jenna was listening to the Common Poorwill.

The next thing I remember is my favorite part of camping - waking up to the birds. That particular morning was filled with sounds from Black-and-White Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Cardinals, and various waterfowl on the lake. It didn't take us long before we were on the road. We were determined to find a snake today. The first thing we saw were three Wild Turkey toms.

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

We hiked a couple trails in the morning and looked in every crack for something alive. We came up with only a few small Prairie Lizard. Jenna got to see her lifer River Otter and I took a picture of a White-eyed Vireo.

White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus)

 Early afternoon we decided to hike Kite Tail. The habitat looked perfect for rattlesnakes. We looked and looked and looked. No rattlesnakes. We did however get to see out brightly colored male collared lizard. Five of them in fact. The first one Jenna spotted on a rock doing pushups. He soon joined a female on a rock.

Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)

Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)

 Late afternoon we could see some storm clouds off in the distance so we decided to head back to camp and make some supper. Besides that, we had hiked 13 miles the past two days and we were sunburned to a crisp. As we got back to camp it started to rain. We sat in the car for a few minutes and then decided to take some snacks and herp books to the tent and read in comfort. As we got in the tent it really started to pour. The rain on the tent was actually really relaxing as long as I could make myself not think about drying and cleaning the tent. The relaxation soon ended when the raindrops started sounding solid. We opened the tent a little so we could see out.

Me looking out of the tent

 At first the hail was pretty light and just smaller than a marble, but they started getting bigger and bigger. Soon they were ping pong ball and golf ball size. The hail storm lasted almost 45 minutes straight. Here is a picture Jenna took about 1/2 hour after the storm passed.

Hail and flowing water

 After the storm passed Jenna made some supper while I took some pictures. I captured an image of some fog. While I was taking the fog pictures, I looked behind me and saw the storm that had just passed. It was bright orange from the setting sun and it was massive. I stuffed my camera gear back into my bag, grabbed my tripod, and ran as fast as I could toward the lake. By the time I got there, the storm had moved farther on and the sun had set lower. I can only imagine the picture I could have got if I had been there at the perfect time. Oh well. Here is the fog picture and a storm picture.

 After supper, Jenna crawled into the tent and discovered that our bedding was wet. We were tired, we were sunburned, and we definitely didn't feel like sleeping in wet sleeping bags. We started packing the car. We took the tent down and shoved everything that was wet into trash bags before we stuffed them in the car. We were on the road in less than 20 minutes. It was a relief to have a shower and to sleep here.

We slept like babies! The only time we were awaken was for a couple more hail storms that night; making us ever more grateful to be in the 62 degree hotel room under fresh laundered sheets and duvet covers. We didn't find our rattlesnake, but there's always next time. We saw 84 species of birds including my two lifers and Jenna's 3 lifers, a life herp with the Collared Lizards, and best of all we got to spend time together outdoors.