A froggy night north of Houston

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MAbernathy
Posts: 193
Joined: June 21st, 2010, 10:46 am
Location: Houston

A froggy night north of Houston

Post by MAbernathy »

Good morning all

It's been ages since I have posted, but I had the opportunity to get out for some herping at Lake Houston Wilderness Park in New Caney last night. I work for the City of Houston Parks Dept. now and we were out seeing what we could find around the park with a great group of folks last night.

The frog chorus' were amazing and almost deafening at times. We saw/heard 11 species of frog/toad last night, along with 2 snakes and one lizard. The species list is below.

-Little Brown Skink
-Broadbanded Water Snake
-Western Cottonmouth

Gray Treefrog - seen and heard
E. Narrowmouth Toad - seen and heard
Upland Chorus Frog - seen and heard
Strecker's Chorus Frog - heard
Rio Grande Chirping Frog - seen and heard
Gulf Coast Toad - seen and heard
S. Leopard Frog - seen and heard
N. Cricket Frog - seen and heard
Squirrel Treefrog - heard
Green Treefrog - seen and heard
Bronze Frog - seen and heard

All in all it was a hell of a night.

For those not familiar with the park, it is 5000 acres about 35 miles NE of Houston, straddling the Montgomery and Harris County lines. Lots of amazing habitat that produces some awesome herps. Some other observations from the park in the past 12 months (but that eluded us last night) include copperhead, buttermilk racer, Louisiana milksnake, Texas Coral, Three toed Box turtle, Couches Spadefoot, Dwarf Salamander, various other Nerodia sp.

I will post pics and see if I can upload some frog chorus audio files soon.

Cheers
Matt
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Jeff
Posts: 620
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 6:01 am
Location: Louisiana

Re: A froggy night north of Houston

Post by Jeff »

Matt

That is a great peak of activity. Unless you are under water now due to subsequent floods...

Is that a place that might have Houston Toads?

You heard Strecker's Chorus frogs: a colleague thought he might have heard some in central Louisiana at the same time. How does a guy know for sure that is is Streckers and not late Spring Peepers?

Thanks,

Jeff
MAbernathy
Posts: 193
Joined: June 21st, 2010, 10:46 am
Location: Houston

Re: A froggy night north of Houston

Post by MAbernathy »

Here is a link to the dropbox where we have the pics from the night.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dn9qj4sflxip ... EXU-a?dl=0

There are a few audio/video files in with some of the chorus recorded.

Regarding the Strecker's call, one of the herpers does frog/toad surveys for Houston Toads (former Houston Zoo Houston Toad project employee) and she is the one that ID'd the call as a Strecker's. In comparing calls of Peepers and Strecker's the call we heard was more rapid, like the Strecker's call we had with us, as opposed to the more steady call of a peeper.

No Houston Toads that I know of. Possibly once a historic location, but most of the Houston Toad habitat was from western Harris county and further west of the area, and we were on the NE side of the city.

Matt
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chrish
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:14 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX
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Re: A froggy night north of Houston

Post by chrish »

Is the streckeri in one of the recordings?
MAbernathy
Posts: 193
Joined: June 21st, 2010, 10:46 am
Location: Houston

Re: A froggy night north of Houston

Post by MAbernathy »

Ill have to check mine and I am still waiting on some of the audio & images from others that were there.

Matt
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