CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

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PNWHerper
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CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

Post by PNWHerper »

I just returned from a week-long trip to CA with 2 friends to collect data for the Herp Tracking Book. This is the 2nd to last trip I will take for the book. The final one will be in June/July.

The trip began in the Redwoods and continued traveling down the coast to about Santa Cruz. We were intending to stay coastal for the data collection, but we had such great success that I felt it would be okay to spend the final days in the Mojave. We had a really incredible time, with many herps found practically everyday of the trip. The pace was fast, and because our schedule had to be really fluid, I did not contact any of you guys to join us in the field.

The best I can do in that regard is share the highlights of our travels with you all. ;) Some of the images are from my friend rob, most are mine. Hope you enjoy seeing them...

First where some herps I found in the campground we stayed at for a night.

Here is a habitat shot. Found a handful of baby Coastal giant salamanders in this creek, but no adults were located.

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Found 2 adult painted ensatina (Ensatina eschscholtzii picta) in our campground. They were within a foot of each other, under separate pieces of bark. They were beautifully patterned. I only took voucher photos, and not detailed pics.

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We moved to a creekside location to look for foothills yellow-legged frogs, and did find a few. They were my first, and it was fun to find them.

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This one was not moving much...

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In the same area, we found a fair number of Northern Pacific Treefrogs (Pseudacris regilla). The funniest thing was that one of my companions, Rob, was holding 2 treefrogs in separate hands. When we put his hands together, the male immediately jumped onto the female into amplexus position...

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When I tried to release one back to the puddle where I had found it, it wouldn't let go.

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Nearby, we found a egg mass that was out on dry land. It must have been in the water at the edge of the puddle and got caught up in the grass as the puddle quickly receeded. I picked it up carefully, so as not to lose any eggs and placed it in the deepest nearby pool.

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Nearby there was some larger, furrier vertebrates hanging out and chewing their cud. These Roosevellt elk are huge, much bigger than the Tule elk further South in California.

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The next day we headed further South and got to a location that tons of log rounds and other cover to flip. Here are some of the critters found during that process.

A beefy Arboreal salamander (Aneides lugubris).

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There were piles of CA slender salamanders (Batrachoseps attenuatus), in many colors and lengths.

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A nice looking ensatina, which according to range maps is suppose to be the Oregon Ensatina (Ensatina eschscholtzii oregonensis).

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Another ensatina looked rather gravid...

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And there were 2 salamanders that where a new species to me, the Speckled Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus flavipunctatus).

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There was also this specimen, which was a lovely, dark Wandering Salamander (Aneides vagrans).

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As we walked around flipping stuff, we found the tracks of some very large carnivores...

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We also ended up flipping a log that had a saw cut through it and this little fellow popped out. He gave us a stern look, and we imagined him saying," Excuse me, but why are being so rude?"

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There was also several Skilton's skinks (Plestiodon skiltonianus skiltonianus) we flipped, and this one really surprised us by taking very readily to water and swimming very fast! Here is Rob's image of one swimming.

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The rivers in the Redwoods belt are often bloated with fine sediments, which make for excellent tracking opportunities.

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And sometimes, you see some hilarious tracks and sign from humans. You would think this person would be a bit more discrete about doing their business... We all had a good laugh about that. :lol:

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After a 2 day stint in that area, we went further South and visited some coastal dunes to look for herps. The day was quite cool, so at first I was thinking we would not have any success, but we persisted in searching out the dunes for fresh trails and did find some, and followed them.

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Found this critter because of the fresh tracks it left. I believe this is the San Francisco Alligator Lizard (Elgaria coerulea coerulea). It had a lovely, clear pattern and was very gray.

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Never seen one before with a pattern like that.

Here is a fun trail we found from a Sierran Treefrog (Pseudacris sierra).

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Its the trail from a pair in amplexus crossing part of the dunes. See the 4 legs of the female together, and the 2 marks made by the toes of the male dragging his hind feet with each hop?

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More to come in the next installment. The next post will be stuff from the Diablo Range and the Mojave desert!

Hope you all are getting a chance to enjoy the spring sunshine and thanks for looking!

Fil
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Fieldnotes
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Re: CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

Post by Fieldnotes »

Super cool post. The eggs look like those of Rana aurora.
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Re: CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

Post by PNWHerper »

Thanks, William!

I agree on the eggmass ID. Here is a pic I forgot to add:

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Its a nice looking Shasta Alligator Lizard (Elgaria coerulea shastensis). Found it in the Redwoods Area in NorCal.
reako45
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Re: CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

Post by reako45 »

Great photos. Especially liked the Alligator Lizards.

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Re: CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

Post by Porter »

Great images :thumb: Really like that shot of the swimming skilton...good flow to the photo stream as. Nice color balance pic to pic
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Re: CA Trip March 2013 (Part I)

Post by PNWHerper »

Thanks, Porter! I appreciate your comments. :D

Also thank Will and Reako45. Glad you enjoyed viewing the pics. :)
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