Great evening at Devine Lake Park Amphibian Watch
Yesterday we went over 1000 observations here. What used to be a casual thing - identifying flora and fauna for the blog - has become almost an obsession. And it is a wonderful way to document our trips and adventures.
Last night we were slowed a bit because our now constant companion, Zelda the parpoozer, came along. We still found egrets, frogs, plants, fungi, spiders, toads, one hawk and a "whole lota fun."
When I say "we" I usually mean my other companion MPF and me. He hates the paperwork, so I do all the reporting and he usually drives, carries the gear (buys the gear too - without complaint!), and wills the snakes away (he is not a fan of snakes - you won't see many posted here. We don't go looking for them, but they do find us anyway.). When he is party to an observation I tag it with his initials. The other initials sometimes tagged are for my sister - a wild woman who can walk me into the ground and has been my hiking partner for over 60 years (we shouldn't mention the time Mama caught us on the railroad tracks).
Yesterday gave witness to a regular Amphibian Watch at Devine Lake Park (thanks Beth D!), our milestone for observations, and MPF's first frog catch. It was more of an "assist" after a frog got away from our youngest herp-lover, but we are counting it.
Plants: American Water Willow, Mexican Primrose-willow, Marsh fleabane, Rough Cocklebur, Bald Cypress, Poverty Weed, Prairie Broomweed, Maximilian Sunflower, and Sumpweed. The sumpweed was new to us.
Arachnid: Striped Bark Scorpion - good sized and glowing under the ultraviolet light. We skipped the thousands of spiders who stared at us, eyes glowing green in our flashlights.
Amphibians: Gulf Coast Toads (2), American Bullfrog, and Blanchard's Cricket Frog (I got no photo, but saw it - See https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8305425 Bethd's photo.
Reptile: The "can be counted on to show up" Mediterranean House Gecko.
Birds: a Great Egret across the lake and an unphotographed Red-tailed Hawk in the construction on our drive.
Fungi: BEAUTIFUL BIG "toadstools" identified as Boletes by someone who knows more about them than me.
We have two more watches coming up this week. One is a trial run for the field trip with a class of young naturalists the following day. I learned from my mom that you go the day before and identify all you can so you are ready for questions the following day. Thanks, Mom!
PS My thanks to all my mentors here and in the TMN program.
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