Berry Springs Preserve Herps of Texas report, 18Mar2017

It was a very pleasant night at Berry Springs Preserve for the 13 people who came out to monitor frogs and toads. Three amphibian species were observed: American Bullfrog (CI = 1), Rio Grande Leopard Frog (CI = 2), and Blanchard's Cricket Frog (CI = 3). Many thanks to Sharla and Don for providing photos, and to Amy for providing additional recordings. Team, team, team !
At the end of the hour, we also observed some strange behavior between two Blanchard's Cricket Frogs - they were really close together on top of the floating algae, and they kept extending first one leg and then the other, like they were trying to intimidate each other ("see, my leg is longer than your leg"). Frog A hopped onto Frog B and got off, both did more leg extensions, then Frog B hopped onto Frog A. Neither one vocalized while we were looking at them. At first we thought that they were a male and female displaying courtship behavior, but I found some information online that suggests that these were two males (http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1894/JMM-02.1), and the leg extensions are what's known as "foot flagging" - a way to minimize physical attacks (http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1655/08-037R.1). Amazing !
The main pond had been dredged for aquatic vegetation three days earlier. Bats were seen and heard on the detector before and after sunset, and two Blotched Water Snakes were seen after sunset. We also saw two River Otters swimming in the main pond - they have been known to show up in the ponds around this time of year (I've heard that they come from the Brazos River, into the San Gabriel River, up Berry Creek, and then into the ponds at Berry Springs). Very cool !
The monitoring period was 19:40 - 20:40.
Participants were Kathy, Sharla and Don (welcome !), Diane & Donna (welcome !), Jim, Hunter & Tonja & Taylor (welcome, Taylor !), Amy & Mike, Marc, and Carolyn.
Environmental Conditions at the main pond at sunset:

• Air temperature = 69.4 deg F
• Water temperature = 73.3 deg F
• Sky = No/few clouds
• Water level = Average
• Relative humidity at sunset = 61 %

Posted on March 19, 2017 03:06 PM by k_mccormack