GA hardwood swamp

[russ]

Went for a walk yesterday in a drying hardwood swamp just south of where I live now. It has been extremely dry since I arrived here so I haven't been out in the field much, just doing rain dances for my lawn (which is getting a sprinkler system today, I give up). But I just couldn't take it any more, so I went on out. The habitat varied from heavily wooded sand hills to low seasonally flooded bottoms like this.
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I found this A.maculatum on one of the slopes leading down to the drying bottoms.
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This A.opacum was along the edge of the drying bottoms. I suspect in a month or so and with a little rain there should be tons of these nesting in this area.
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There were dozens of N.v.louisianensis estivating under debris in the dried portions of the bottoms. What little water that was left was obviously unsuitable for them.
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And the unexpected highlight was this little H.avivoca. At first glance I thought it was a H.andersonii and about had a cow. But then I realized I was no where near their range and had to get the field guide out.
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[garrison]

Nice pics! Do you think that it will fill up again with the fall rains? We had quite the dry year and I have yet to find out how it's affected our small number of caudates in IA.

 

[russ]

I'm quite sure it will. The tropical storm headed this way might just do the trick too.

 

[jennifer]

I think it's curious that both the maculatum and opacum in your area have obvious white dots along the sides. It could be a coincidence, though it makes me think there could be some natural selection in Georgia that would cause this trait to occur in two different species.

 

[mike]

Nice post Russ. I'm looking forward to the smokies salamander post you hinted about.

(Message edited by mikebenard on October 06, 2005)

 

[TJ]

Congrats on your exciting finds, Russ, and thanks for showing us such cool pics

Your mention of estivating N. v. louisianensis makes me want to read up on estivation once I get home today.

That Hyla avivoca looks to me a bit like Hyla japonica we have here in Japan. See:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24791/17994.jpg

 

[william]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Jennifer Macke wrote on Wednesday, 05 October, 2005 - 23:42 :</font>

" think it's curious that both the maculatum and opacum in your area have obvious white dots along the sides. It could be a coincidence, though it makes me think there could be some natural selection in Georgia that would cause this trait to occur in two different species."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>


my female opacum has white dots on it's side, but my male doesn't, i just thought that the female was just young and in the latter stages of losing here juvinile colouration.

 

[jameswei]

hi, a general question about herp photoshooting? how on earth do you guys manage to spot somethign so small and specifcally designed to evade notice?

 

[john]

Your eyes get used to finding them after a while. The hardest thing is working at night or at dusk when they're starting to really move around. During the day when they're sedentary, you can flip a log or rock and you have plenty of time to scan the area in detail. The aquatics are pretty easy to spot. They dart away when you flip the rock unless they're pretty old. You need quick eyes to find where they went so you can set up with a net to catch them though. I actually get headaches after an hour or two along the stream beds from concentrating on their fast movements.

(Message edited by stormcrow73 on October 07, 2005)

 

[garrison]

I was kindof wondering that too. I've recently decided I may want to start herping for sals simply because there doesn't seem to be a lot of info on the few species of sals we have in IA. Anyone can do surveys on frogs and toads in spring since you can hear them, but sals seem to require a bit more skill.

 

[uwe]

Great pictures Russ,

How did you find a Hyla on bright daylight?

The A.opacum will be in Heaven after the rain!

Uwe

 

[william]

at what time of the year do the rains usually come?

 

[sean]

Thats great Russ! A couple of those species I have never found at all. What part of Georgia are you residing in. I am in middle Georgia. Hope to move to Tennessee in the future. If you ever want a field partner one weekend let me know! You also have an invite here if you want!

 

[russ]

I saw both H.versicolor and H.avivoca out that morning. It was cool and overcast during the morning and it was young of the year out, no adults. The rains have come so I might try to slide back down there today.

Sean, I'm just south of Atlanta.