Lake Creek Humid Amphibian Watch Jun 9, 2018

Welcome back to Texas for me! Nice to see how Lake Creek is doing after being half-way across the world. It certainly warmed up in the last month (a cruel understatement).

Five of us gathered at the dam for monitoring - thanks Kathy, Myra, Carolyn and Jennifer Whaley for joining me.

Environmental Conditions (at 20:30):
Air Temp: 27.7C
Water Temp: 31.5C
Sky: 0 (clear)
Water Level: AA (Above Average)
Relative Humidity: 65%

General Observations:
Plenty of insects out over the water for the swallows and bats. When is became completely dark, the Giant Walkingstick pairs started to appear on the sidewalks, always below overhanging trees.

Amphibian/Herp Watch Report:
This was Green Tree Frog night. It is pretty rare for this species to dominate the soundscape at Lake Creek. Normally at this time of year the B. Cricket Frogs drown out everything with a continuous racket. Not so this time, with no calls detected at all!! The Green Tree Frogs were calling up to overlapping (C2) in trees between the lake and the neighborhood sidewalk. We also heard one of those darned Bullfrogs calling again, so rarely that we could not get a recording.
We noticed several large water snakes fishing on the shallow face of the dam, and all took pix of one Diamondbacked Watersnake for the record.
The limestone wall did not disappoint. It was dry and most cracks were full of cobwebs and leaf/grass clipping litter. Saw no chirping frogs for the first time in months. However, there was a bonus.
We found a large Gulf Coast Toad on a block ledge that sat a pose for pix. I tried a little "pet" with one finger and (s)he reared up, but stayed in place. We spent at least 10 minutes running index fingers down (her) back and taking photos. Never seen anything like it. See a series of funny shots here.

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