Berry Springs Preserve Herps of Texas report, 21Apr2018

We saw and heard lots of summer breeding and resident birds before sunset (e.g., Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Eastern Phoebe, Summer Tanager, and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher). At sunset, bats were zooming over the ponds feasting on big, green mayflies and a pack of coyotes let off a howl across the creek. About half an hour after sunset, a Barred Owl called for several minutes. The ground fog was thick over the fields when we arrived, and it got worse throughout monitoring hour.
It took three tries, but Nikki and Hunter finally caught a Blanchard's Cricket Frog (Call Index = 3) that persisted in climbing up onto a patch of algae near the shore. There were at least three American Bullfrogs (briefly up to CI = 2) that we could see - one near the fishing pier walkway on the "well" side of the pond, one in the slough by "beaver lodge point", and one farther up the slough near the footbridge by the playground. I wasn't able to get a decent photo of them in the dark, but I did get three recordings. There were only a few Rio Grande Leopard Frogs (CI = 1) calling, but with Marc's help I managed to record one croak.
The last people in the parking lot felt the cold front blow through and knew that it was our cue to leave.
The monitoring period was 20:00 - 21:00.
Participants were Kathy, Christie, Sondra, Nikki, Marc, and Hunter.
Environmental conditions at the main pond at sunset:

• Air temperature = 66.9 deg F
• Water temperature = 68 deg F
• Sky = No/few clouds
• Water level = Average
• Relative humidity at sunset = 71 %

Posted on April 24, 2018 11:53 PM by k_mccormack