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