Archivos de diario de enero 2017

22 de enero de 2017

Berry Springs Preserve Herps of Texas report, 21Jan2017

It was a warm January evening when we started our amphibian monitoring at Berry Springs Preserve, but we had to dodge a few raindrops at the end of the hour as some intimidating storm clouds passed just to our southeast. One Rio Grande Leopard Frog called intermittently in the main pond near the well, but no photos or recordings were obtained. We also checked out the wet-weather pond behind the improved campground before we left - according to the USGS gauge on Berry Creek near the Georgetown Airport, there had been 1.25" of rain four days before monitoring, and 0.76" of rain three days before monitoring.

Several bats were seen and heard (on the bat detector) flying over the main pond shortly after sunset. Before amphibian monitoring, we also performed the annual checkup on the 10 Eastern Bluebird nestboxes in the park (nail/baffle/hole OK ?, remove any old nests, and soap up the inside to deter wasps).

The pump next to the main pond was still flowing under artesian pressure.
The monitoring period was 18:00 - 19:00.
Participants were Kathy, Hunter & Tonja, Heike, Carolyn, Christie, Bill, and Jim.
Environmental Conditions at the main pond at sunset:

  • Air temperature = 69.8 deg F
  • Water temperature = 66.7 deg F
  • Sky = Mostly cloudy
  • Water level = Average
  • Relative humidity at sunset = 35 %
Publicado el enero 22, 2017 06:57 TARDE por k_mccormack k_mccormack | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

29 de enero de 2017

Freshwater Mussels of Texas report, 15Jan2017

Five people did a random shoreline freshwater mussel search at Emma Long Metropolitan Park in Travis County, Texas on January 15, 2017. Water levels in Lake Austin (Colorado River basin) were down 7.12 feet due to an intentional drawdown by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) for dock maintenance and invasive plant control. The substrate was mostly sand and silt, but there were a few stretches of cobble and boulder along the approximately 5,000 ft (0.95 mi) of Lake Austin’s north shore within this City of Austin park where the survey occurred. Monitoring began under a cool, light drizzle, but the rain quickly stopped. The rest of the afternoon was cloudy and slowly warming until the sun finally came out during the last hour or so of monitoring.

The monitoring period was 12:15 – 4:30 PM, and survey participants included Kathy, Tonja and Hunter, and Kathryn and Joel. Many non-native Asian Clams were observed, but no non-native Zebra Mussels were observed. Four native freshwater mussel species were observed:

  • Giant Floater – 7 alive, 86 shells, 11 valves;
  • Bleufer – 4 shells, 13 valves;
  • Tampico Pearlymussel – 6 shells, 19 valves; and,
  • Paper Pondshell – 2 alive, 7 shells, 3 valves.

We also found a very young Spiny Softshell Turtle that may have just hatched.

Many thanks to Marsha May (TPWD) for help with identification. Although they can be hard to tell apart, our biggest “lesson learned” was that Bleufer has less robust pseudocardinal teeth than Tampico Pearlymussel.

Publicado el enero 29, 2017 04:08 TARDE por k_mccormack k_mccormack | 6 observaciones | 3 comentarios | Deja un comentario