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OR Press: A decidedly different egg hunt

wes_von_papineäu

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THE OREGONIAN (Portland, Oregon) 15 February 08 A decidedly different egg hunt - Volunteers wade the Killin Wetlands searching for signs of amphibian life (Eric Mortenson)
Banks: The trick, Katy Weil said, is to walk like a heron. Which would be easier if people's knees bent backward, but the volunteers gave it a try anyway: slow, stiff, high-legged steps into the frigid water, rising ominously up their chest waders. Point your toes, Weil said. That way you don't stir up as much silt.
Makes the egg masses easier to see.
That's what the volunteers were looking for Thursday as they glided -- like herons, if herons wore neoprene pantsuits -- through thick underwater grasses and reeds. They were searching the Killin Wetlands, just off Oregon 6 outside of Banks, for frog and salamander egg masses.
"Dark dots and a jelly mass," Weil explained with the cheerful good will of a woman who loves amphibians.
Luckily for her -- she's Metro's wildlife monitoring coordinator -- many other people feel the same way. This spring, 55 volunteers will be heron-walking into 14 ponds, marshes and bogs to find, count and monitor eggs laid by northern red-legged frogs, northwestern salamanders, Pacific chorus frogs and others.
Why? Because frogs and salamanders are, well, cool -- and their presence signals healthy habitat. For many Northwesterners growing up, they were an easily caught, safe to handle introduction to the natural world.
"People come out of the woodwork to go into the water, get cold and look for frog eggs," Weil says. "It brings out the happy 5- or 6-year-old in all of us."
There's a scientific basis for the work as well, because amphibians are good indicators of the health of the natural world. Metro has purchased more than 8,100 acres since 1995 to preserve as natural areas or parks, and frogs and salamanders provide clues to how well Metro's restoration work is faring. Metro volunteers have been monitoring them and other animals for the past six years. In some places, the population of northern red-legged frogs, which are a threatened species, and salamanders has increased.
"They're connected to the wetland, what's submerged, and to the surrounding riparian," said Curt Zonick, a natural resources scientist with Metro. "They use both. They're great critters for us to track."
And easy for volunteers to find. Usually.
On Thursday, Valentine's Day, three volunteers and a pair of interns helped Weil search Killin Wetlands for signs of frog love. Or salamanders, which spew cantaloupe-size egg masses after their trysts.
Volunteers Paul and Mary Ellen Hagewood of Hillsboro eased into the water with veteran Metro monitor John Driscoll. The Hagewoods enjoy hiking and bird-watching, but were new to egg searching. They volunteered after seeing people do it last year.
"I saw some people wading out in the Killin marsh and I thought, 'That looks strange enough to be interesting,' " Paul Hagewood said.
Weil thought Driscoll's experience at finding egg masses would help the rookies. "John's like the egg whisperer," she said.
After heron-stepping through the submerged reeds for quite some time with no luck, Driscoll let out an, "Eh!"
"Was that the imitation call?" Paul Hagewood quipped.
"No, that was the 'time to go back to the bank' call," Driscoll said.
Back on shore, Weil guessed that the love shack water was a smidgen too cold to lure frogs and salamanders. A degree or two warmer at night and they'll be hooking up, she said. Volunteer monitors have already found egg masses at other Metro areas this spring, she said.
No one at Killin looked disappointed.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1203047721284620.xml&coll=7
 
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