J
john
Guest
My wife and I went to southern Oklahoma on Saturday morning for a mini holiday/break. We returned on Sunday night. My wife loves swimming and sunbathing, so she planned the trip around that. I was just along for the ride. What I didn't know was that the place we were visiting was a freshwater stream/river.
Being the curious monkey of the family, I bought a child's net from the local store and proceeded to try to find my first American newt or salamander (I was aiming for larvae). Unfortunately it seems I wasn't meant to find Caudata. However, I did find the following:
Rana catesbeiana - American Bullfrog (tadpole):
I found this 11 cm+ guy in weeds in a slow moving part of the river. The smaller tadpole is described next.
Rana blairi? - Southern Leopard Frog (tadpole) [Not sure on this one]:
Found living in the same weeds as the bullfrog tadpoles. I only found one of these. It's in the bullfrog photo too.
Acris crepitans - Northern Cricket Frog:
Found many males scattered along the very edge of weedy areas of the river. They called whenever people weren't close by.
? tadpoles [I'm really clueless on this one]:
I found many of these at various stages of development. All were quite dark in colouration. I think they're either Bufo tadpoles of some sort or they might have been Acris tadpoles. However the body colour was very dark brown, and I can't find any photos of Acris tadpoles that colour on the Internet.
Terrapene carolina - Eastern Box Turtle:
This guy was sitting in the middle of country road. He had obviously decided to cross the road, had gotten half way into the first lane and encountered a car. He then spent lord knows how much time hiding in his shell and poking his head out occasionally to check if it was safe yet. Unfortunately for him, his decision making process wasn't shorter than the interval of cars, so he's lucky we drove by.
Snake - I chanced upon a snake in a small pool of water sunning itself. I couldn't get the camera out in time before it had swam off under a bank.
Skink - again, didn't get a chance to take a photo. It ran straight across the path in front of me, didn't stop. It was 20-25 cm long I think, and it had nice coloured stripes running along its back.
So no newts or salamanders but I'm no longer a US amphibian virgin.
Emergent skimmer dragonfly
Lestes disjunctus australis - Common Spreadwing? Damselfly, pair laying eggs.
Another species of Damselfly:
Crayfish
I should note that I didn't have my Digital SLR with me - these were all taken on my wife's compact digital camera, a Canon Powershot S80.
Being the curious monkey of the family, I bought a child's net from the local store and proceeded to try to find my first American newt or salamander (I was aiming for larvae). Unfortunately it seems I wasn't meant to find Caudata. However, I did find the following:
Rana catesbeiana - American Bullfrog (tadpole):
I found this 11 cm+ guy in weeds in a slow moving part of the river. The smaller tadpole is described next.
Rana blairi? - Southern Leopard Frog (tadpole) [Not sure on this one]:
Found living in the same weeds as the bullfrog tadpoles. I only found one of these. It's in the bullfrog photo too.
Acris crepitans - Northern Cricket Frog:
Found many males scattered along the very edge of weedy areas of the river. They called whenever people weren't close by.
? tadpoles [I'm really clueless on this one]:
I found many of these at various stages of development. All were quite dark in colouration. I think they're either Bufo tadpoles of some sort or they might have been Acris tadpoles. However the body colour was very dark brown, and I can't find any photos of Acris tadpoles that colour on the Internet.
Terrapene carolina - Eastern Box Turtle:
This guy was sitting in the middle of country road. He had obviously decided to cross the road, had gotten half way into the first lane and encountered a car. He then spent lord knows how much time hiding in his shell and poking his head out occasionally to check if it was safe yet. Unfortunately for him, his decision making process wasn't shorter than the interval of cars, so he's lucky we drove by.
Snake - I chanced upon a snake in a small pool of water sunning itself. I couldn't get the camera out in time before it had swam off under a bank.
Skink - again, didn't get a chance to take a photo. It ran straight across the path in front of me, didn't stop. It was 20-25 cm long I think, and it had nice coloured stripes running along its back.
So no newts or salamanders but I'm no longer a US amphibian virgin.
Emergent skimmer dragonfly
Lestes disjunctus australis - Common Spreadwing? Damselfly, pair laying eggs.
Another species of Damselfly:
Crayfish
I should note that I didn't have my Digital SLR with me - these were all taken on my wife's compact digital camera, a Canon Powershot S80.
