Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

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NACairns
Posts: 372
Joined: December 30th, 2013, 7:27 am

Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by NACairns »

As my previous posts have mentioned I'm doing my graduate studies on the phylogeography of Pseudacris crucifer across the species entire range. One of the best parts of my job is getting out into the field and explore novel places were peepers occur.
This iteration of field season was to cover Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, running a series of transects and collecting samples. In a lucky coincidence the start date overlapped with the indigo snake survey in Conecuh NF Alabama, put on by Auburn University to monitor the reintroduction program. My lab mate Mark and I left frigid Ontario but were pretty surprised that we were still seeing ice and snow the next morning in Alabama. The forecast had called for rainy but warm weather for the week.
We arrived at Conecuh and went for a quick hike to see if we could see some southern fauna. We weren't skunked but were not overwhelmed. We managed to see some cricket frogs (Acris) and a dead swamp snake (Seminatrix) in the shallows of a local lake but the most interesting thing was an anole that fled into the water from an emergent cypress tree. We waited it out and were able to get a good look at it after it warmed up. I had seen green anoles before but never I've seen one use water as an escape route.
Anolis carolinensis
ImageAnolis carolinensis by nacairn, on Flickr

Back at the camp ground, we spooked an armadillo at near the bathroom. A new species for both of us, this leprosy vector was a true novelty and over the course of the trip we never tired seeing them.
Dasypus novemcinctus
ImageDasypus novemcinctus by nacairn, on Flickr

That evening, we set up our campsite and had just settled in to catch up on sleep when we heard talk from the next site over referencing rainbow snakes and ornate chorus frogs (a species I really wanted to record the call of). This is not the type of conversation you pretend you didn't hear so I introduced myself and within 15 minutes were checking out breeding pools with a great cohort of southern herpers. Unfortunately the weather and recently burnt poolside vegetation were not helping and we struck out on amphibs that evening.
The next morning under a distinctly unsnakey sky we met up with the Jim Godwin and Jimmy Stiles and received our marching orders. Mark and I lucked out and joined Jim, Joe Jenkins and their parties for our first site. We had a quick confab with the group and asked about the local habitat and the specifics of indigo behaviour when around their burrows. Less than 5 minutes later we had the first and unfortunately only indigo of the weekend,which had been basking half out of a gopher tortoise burrow.

Drymarchon couperi
ImageDrymarchon couperi by nacairn, on Flickr

What a spectacular snake (1.9 m, male), very calm during and after capture. To personify for a moment, it seemed confident in a way that I have seldom seen in snakes.

Drymarchon couperi
ImageDrymarchon couperi by nacairn, on Flickr

That site also produced a cold fence lizard, which did not seem to impress the local herpers much but we were pretty keen.

Sceloporus undulatus
ImageSceloporus undulatus by nacairn, on Flickr

The afternoon searching produced a ground skink and a handsome racer.

Scincella lateralis
ImageIMGP1673 by nacairn, on Flickr

Coluber constrictor priapus
ImageIMGP1672 by nacairn, on Flickr
ImageColuber constrictor priapus by nacairn, on Flickr

That evening someone produced a barking treefrog (can't remember who, but thank you for showing us) but the the rest of our searching was fruitless.

Hyla gratiosa
ImageHyla gratiosa by nacairn, on Flickr

The next day was too cold and rainy for snakes for we joined up with Jimmy to search for amphibians. The group was able to dredge up a mud turtle, some larval Eurycea and some gulf coast waterdogs.

Kinosternon subrubrum
ImageIMGP1742 by nacairn, on Flickr

Necturus beyeri
ImageNecturus beyeri by nacairn, on Flickr

We went to try to record an ornate chorus frog but were unable to locate one of the few scattered individuals calling from the tree line in a timely manner. We said our goodbyes and were off to Louisiana.
Our contact at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries was kind enough to offer us accommodation at one of there WMA bunkhouses which was outstanding. A quick search around the grounds revealed a few hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) and Fowler's toad along with a few diurnal calling peepers and Cajun chorus frogs a promising start for that night.

Anaxyrus fowleri
ImageAnaxyrus fowleri by nacairn, on Flickr

That night was productive but the weather was turning and the next morning it was looking like we would only get one or two more days of decent weather with only one really good night. After conferring with the very helpful staff at the fish hatchery at Alexander State Forest and checking their ponds for turtles (1 mud) and snakes (2 unknown Nerodia) we began an spectacularly productive night that took us from the swamp/bottomlands of the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain to the pineywoods of east Texas. This was the best night of amphibian activity of the whole trip and despite getting the van stuck in the mud (Many thanks to Mr. Whitehead for pulling us out) we collected many samples from a number of sites.

Kinosternon subrubrum
ImageKinosternon subrubrum by nacairn, on Flickr

Hyla cinerea
ImageHyla cinerea by nacairn, on Flickr

Pseudacris fouquettei
ImagePseudacris fouquettei by nacairn, on Flickr

Pseudacris crucifer
ImagePseudacris crucifer by nacairn, on Flickr

Unfortunately this was our last full night of collecting. The next night we met with Dan Saenz and he gave us all sorts of information about peepers in the area. As we sampled from an urban population in Nacogdoches with him we were alerted to an imminent ice-storm and long term cold front that would limit our sampling for at least 5 days. As our next stop was higher in latitude and elevation we decided to retreat back north to get some other work done and return when the weather would be more favourable.

After waiting for a couple weeks for cool weather to pass and then Mark and I packed up the van and headed for Arkansas. We met with Kelly and Lisa Irwin for lunch where they shared all manner useful information on peepers as well as his research into the herpetofauna and natural history of this amazing state. In repayment of this kindness we preceded to get stuck in their lawn and Kelly had to extract our van with his tractor.

Thanks Kelly
ImagePhoto_by_Lisa_Irwin by nacairn, on Flickr

Right after that we drove off into the rainy Ouachita Mountins. We started on the north side of Rich Mountain and drove south to the Caddo Mountains collecting peeper samples. Some of the AOR bycatch was pretty cool.

Plethodon serratus
ImagePlethodon serratus by nacairn, on Flickr

We slept in the Caddos and the next morning we were able turn up a Desmog within 5 minutes of waking up, they were incredibly common in this area.

Desmognathus brimleyorum
ImageDesmognathus brimleyorum by nacairn, on Flickr

We had some breakfast then spent a couple minutes searching for woodland salamanders and again were not disappointed by the Caddos.

Plethodon caddoensis
ImagePlethodon caddoensis by nacairn, on Flickr

Plethodon serratus
ImagePlethodon serratus by nacairn, on Flickr

Plethodon caddoensis
ImagePlethodon caddoensis by nacairn, on Flickr

We then headed down to Texas and collected between Mount Pleasant and Atlanta. As with most of the peepers we encounter in the south they were calling from arboreal perches often thorny ones.

Pseudacris crucifer
ImagePseudacris crucifer by nacairn, on Flickr

The next day we headed south of Nacogdoches and met up with Dan again who gave us more interesting information and took us to couple of his field sites. Unfortunately there were very few peepers going this far south but the gray tree frogs were chorusing heavily and other other species were also out in numbers.

Hyla versicolor
ImageHyla versicolor by nacairn, on Flickr

Agkistrodon piscivorus
ImageAgkistrodon piscivorus by nacairn, on Flickr

Achurum sp.
ImageAchurum sp. by nacairn, on Flickr

Agkistrodon piscivorus
ImageAgkistrodon piscivorus by nacairn, on Flickr

Pseudacris crucifer
ImagePseudacris crucifer by nacairn, on Flickr

The next day was for productive for turtles and we were even able to find some peeper tadpoles.

ImageIMGP2140 by nacairn, on Flickr

I was particularly excited to see map turtles
Graptemys pseudogeographica kohnii
ImageGraptemys pseudogeographica kohnii by nacairn, on Flickr

Pseudemys concinna
ImageIMGP2148 by nacairn, on Flickr

Pseudacris crucifer
ImagePcru_tadpoles by nacairn, on Flickr

That night we started searching around the Red River which produces a great batch of peepers along with some cool bycatch, most notably a lesser siren. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a photo of that critter but we did get one of the one of the several cottonmouths we saw that night. They make peeper hunting a little more exciting than it is up here in Canada.

Agkistrodon piscivorus
ImageIMGP2169-hdr by nacairn, on Flickr

Our final night in the field we drove a transect across Cleburne County from the Arkansas River Valley into the Boston Mountains. Extensive thunder storms brought out out a lot of wildlife including great numbers of peepers making it the best night of the year so far. We were working so the we didn't take many pictures (as was the case for most of the trip) but we did see a few Oklahoma salamander and had take a moment to get our cameras out.

Eurycea tynerensis
ImageEurycea tynerensis by nacairn, on Flickr

The next morning we found a few salamanders in the Ozarks.

Plethodon angusticlavius
ImageIMGP2239 by nacairn, on Flickr

Plethodon albagula
ImagePlethodon albagula by nacairn, on Flickr

On the way back we hit up Union County Illinois despite in only being 4 degrees Celsius and only having 1.5 hours we had a very successful visit.

Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
ImageThamnophis sirtalis sirtalis by nacairn, on Flickr

Plethodon dorsalis
ImagePlethodon dorsalis by nacairn, on Flickr

Ambystoma opacum
ImageAmbystoma opacum by nacairn, on Flickr

Diadophis punctatus
ImageDiadophis punctatus by nacairn, on Flickr

I want to thank the FHF posters (gretzkyrh4, justinm, Jeff, chrish, beanie) that responded to my request for information on these regions and Jeff for pointing me in the right direction for regional phenology data through NAAMP. Also many thanks to the folks that helped us out on our whirlwind tour most notably Jim Godwin, Jimmy Stiles, Mr. Whitehead, Kelly and Lisa Irwin and Dan Saenz. We had an outstanding time and can't wait to get down there again, hopefully next time it won't be so rushed and we can see a little more of the region during the day.
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chrish
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Location: San Antonio, TX
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Re: Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by chrish »

Looks like you had a couple of good and productive trips. Glad you had both.
That Indigo in the burrow shot is great!
NACairns
Posts: 372
Joined: December 30th, 2013, 7:27 am

Re: Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by NACairns »

Thanks chrish, Mark and I had a great time and I think we hit the right spots (won't know until we get some of the lab work finished up). We saw some really cool areas and species but the issue (from a diversity perspective) with working on peepers is we work so early in the season and we always work in the dark so we missed out on a lot cool scenery and warm season herps. I loved it down there so I'll just have to bring the family down one of these days, that said, I might come down for another peeper season as well.
Again thanks for your advice.
Best,
Nick
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kaptainkory
Posts: 187
Joined: June 28th, 2010, 11:33 pm
Location: Bella Vista, Arkansas

Re: Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by kaptainkory »

NACairns wrote:ImagePhoto_by_Lisa_Irwin by nacairn, on Flickr
Hey, I know those ruts! ;) Kelly was sure to point out what "a couple of idiots" did to his yard when I visited a day or two later. HA! J/K :D

Looks like you covered a lot of miles and found some good stuff. Indigos are an iconic species I'd sure like to see someday myself.

Please consider adding any of your AR herp photos to the Herps of Arkansas Flickr group.
NACairns
Posts: 372
Joined: December 30th, 2013, 7:27 am

Re: Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by NACairns »

Yeah, Kelly was pretty gracious about it but sure he had choice words saved up for us. I should have known better but its not the first time I've been stuck and it sure won't be the last. At least we'll be remembered for something.

The indigo was a spectacular snake, the temperament was different than I was expecting. Having worked on Pituophis I was expecting a different beast. What a great day and trip.

I'd love to add some photos to the flickr group, had a great time in Arkansas although I do wish we had taken a little more time to get pictures (and a bit more time herping). Guess it isn't that long of a drive, there's always next time.

Best,
Nick
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kaptainkory
Posts: 187
Joined: June 28th, 2010, 11:33 pm
Location: Bella Vista, Arkansas

Re: Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by kaptainkory »

kaptainkory wrote:Kelly was sure to point out what "a couple of idiots" did to his yard...
I should probably say that is not a *direct* quote. HA! The whole conversation was prompted anyway when I started to park on the uphill side of his truck and felt the ground a little squishy.
NACairns
Posts: 372
Joined: December 30th, 2013, 7:27 am

Re: Peeper huntin' 2015 with an indigo side trip

Post by NACairns »

No worries, even if it was a direct quote. Kelly helped us out a lot, he earned the right to a little low level slander.
Missing Arkansas (and TX, LA, AL) now that I'm back to work, really wishing that I had spent some more time looking for/taking better pictures of herps especially salamanders of the Ozark and Ouachitas.
Best,
Nick
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