Lamb
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Herping in Mississippi
Hey all! I wanted to post this before it slipped my mind (pics will come later when I move back to my dorm and can get the connecting cable for my camera). My family has a house in MS by a medium sized man made lake. I was able to squeeze in two herping trips during my spring break, with semi-successful results. There are 2 corridors of flooded area (1-1.5 ft deep in places) created by 3 roads about 10 minutes walking from my house. While long, the corridors are narrow, the roads are aprox. 50-70 meters apart (you can see through the trees). Also, it's a hilly area so the water is restricted to the troughs. I was able to explore 2 of these troughs. Canopy cover in both wasn't thick, a good bit of sun came through, but there was a lot of shade, and many many many logs/branches to roll.
First trough: even though it looked like the perfect habitat for multiple caudate spp. (lots of logs, standing water and flowing water in some areas, very moist), I only found 1. Plethodon mississippi (Mississippi slimy salamander). A large adult that (a guesstimate) was 3 inches SVL. S/he really glued up my hands with skin secretions, but I was overjoyed to find her/him. Nothing else though, hoping to go back and roll logs another time.
Second trough: unfortunatley, my efforts were impeded by my aunts dog, Weaver, who refused to stay home (I think she scared off a lot of critters). I had heard Pseudacris nigrita (Southern Chorus Frog) and Pseudacris crucifer (Spring peeper) calling from this area the night before. Unfortunatley, I didn't see any egg masses but I did manage to catch/see tadpoles that looked like they belonged in hylidae. The only other find was an adult box turtle that wouldn't open it's eyes and made me think it was blind (I waited and it opened them later). Amaizingly, the dog didn't bark at the turtle (she's known for using them as play things).
Not extremly eventful trips, but I want to keep a running tab on the species I find in those troughs, as I think it would be interesting to look at the number of species/individuals living in such obviously divided habitat patches.
Hey all! I wanted to post this before it slipped my mind (pics will come later when I move back to my dorm and can get the connecting cable for my camera). My family has a house in MS by a medium sized man made lake. I was able to squeeze in two herping trips during my spring break, with semi-successful results. There are 2 corridors of flooded area (1-1.5 ft deep in places) created by 3 roads about 10 minutes walking from my house. While long, the corridors are narrow, the roads are aprox. 50-70 meters apart (you can see through the trees). Also, it's a hilly area so the water is restricted to the troughs. I was able to explore 2 of these troughs. Canopy cover in both wasn't thick, a good bit of sun came through, but there was a lot of shade, and many many many logs/branches to roll.
First trough: even though it looked like the perfect habitat for multiple caudate spp. (lots of logs, standing water and flowing water in some areas, very moist), I only found 1. Plethodon mississippi (Mississippi slimy salamander). A large adult that (a guesstimate) was 3 inches SVL. S/he really glued up my hands with skin secretions, but I was overjoyed to find her/him. Nothing else though, hoping to go back and roll logs another time.
Second trough: unfortunatley, my efforts were impeded by my aunts dog, Weaver, who refused to stay home (I think she scared off a lot of critters). I had heard Pseudacris nigrita (Southern Chorus Frog) and Pseudacris crucifer (Spring peeper) calling from this area the night before. Unfortunatley, I didn't see any egg masses but I did manage to catch/see tadpoles that looked like they belonged in hylidae. The only other find was an adult box turtle that wouldn't open it's eyes and made me think it was blind (I waited and it opened them later). Amaizingly, the dog didn't bark at the turtle (she's known for using them as play things).
Not extremly eventful trips, but I want to keep a running tab on the species I find in those troughs, as I think it would be interesting to look at the number of species/individuals living in such obviously divided habitat patches.
