wes_von_papineäu
Our Roving Correspondent
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2006
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- Vancouver, British Columbia
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- Display Name
- Wes von Papineäu
{OK Paris, just who else outside of Caudata.org have you been speaking with of late, eh? 
}
TIMES-STANDARD (Eureka, California) 20 April 08 Reptiles, amphibians crash bird celebration (John Driscoll)
Godwit Days isn't just for the birds anymore.
One of dozens of groups that set out to get a close look at the natural wonders of the Humboldt Bay area was led by Lowell Diller, a herpetologist with the Green Diamond Resource Co. Shortly into the field trip outside Blue Lake, the group of about 15 had captured some alligator lizards while over turning rocks.
”If you've never been nipped, you need to do it just to get over the potential fear of it,” Diller told the group hovered around the lizard, whose jaws were snapping.
One by one, the people let the lizard latch on. Diller explained that the alligator lizard can contract the muscles around its lungs when it's in danger, causing its tail to fall off with the slightest pull. The tail will twitch rapidly, a ploy to deceive predators, while the lizard escapes.
While the group hit a relative dry spot at its first stop, a move to some ponds outside Korbel yielded a bonanza of amphibians and lizards. Bethany Facendini, who works with East Bay Regional Parks, volunteered to put on chest waders and retrieve two traps Diller had set in the ponds the day before.
As she pulled up the first trap, and saw the wriggling mass at the bottom of the net, her enthusiasm was clear.
”Can I grab the newt?” she exclaimed. “Oh, there's lots of newts.”
Rough-skinned newts, that is. Their rough skin is caused by poison glands, which release a potent oral toxin, Diller said.
”You don't want to eat them,” he said.
The poison keeps them from being eaten by predators -- except for garter snakes and only in some areas. The snakes in some places have developed immunity from the poison, Diller said, and the newts have developed more potent toxin to compensate, a type of biological arms race.
The Godwit Days opening attracted hundreds to the Arcata Community Center Friday. Lifelong birders, rank novices, photographers, sightseers, naturalists and others gathered as part of the yearly festival centered around the marbled godwit, a shorebird that earned its name because its beak curves skyward.
Some 100 field trips would bring people from around the country on forays into forests, mountains and marshes in the area. It's been a big draw, year after year, since it started 13 years ago. A wide variety of experts walked people through the ins and outs of North Coast plants and wildlife.
It doesn't take long for some people to get hooked. Sam Crosby of Glen Cove, New York was here Saturday for his second Godwit Days visit. He came out last year to see his sister-in-law and ended up buying some land on the coast.
”I'm just biding my time before we make the big move,” Crosby said. “It's gorgeous here.”
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_8991136
}TIMES-STANDARD (Eureka, California) 20 April 08 Reptiles, amphibians crash bird celebration (John Driscoll)
Godwit Days isn't just for the birds anymore.
One of dozens of groups that set out to get a close look at the natural wonders of the Humboldt Bay area was led by Lowell Diller, a herpetologist with the Green Diamond Resource Co. Shortly into the field trip outside Blue Lake, the group of about 15 had captured some alligator lizards while over turning rocks.
”If you've never been nipped, you need to do it just to get over the potential fear of it,” Diller told the group hovered around the lizard, whose jaws were snapping.
One by one, the people let the lizard latch on. Diller explained that the alligator lizard can contract the muscles around its lungs when it's in danger, causing its tail to fall off with the slightest pull. The tail will twitch rapidly, a ploy to deceive predators, while the lizard escapes.
While the group hit a relative dry spot at its first stop, a move to some ponds outside Korbel yielded a bonanza of amphibians and lizards. Bethany Facendini, who works with East Bay Regional Parks, volunteered to put on chest waders and retrieve two traps Diller had set in the ponds the day before.
As she pulled up the first trap, and saw the wriggling mass at the bottom of the net, her enthusiasm was clear.
”Can I grab the newt?” she exclaimed. “Oh, there's lots of newts.”
Rough-skinned newts, that is. Their rough skin is caused by poison glands, which release a potent oral toxin, Diller said.
”You don't want to eat them,” he said.
The poison keeps them from being eaten by predators -- except for garter snakes and only in some areas. The snakes in some places have developed immunity from the poison, Diller said, and the newts have developed more potent toxin to compensate, a type of biological arms race.
The Godwit Days opening attracted hundreds to the Arcata Community Center Friday. Lifelong birders, rank novices, photographers, sightseers, naturalists and others gathered as part of the yearly festival centered around the marbled godwit, a shorebird that earned its name because its beak curves skyward.
Some 100 field trips would bring people from around the country on forays into forests, mountains and marshes in the area. It's been a big draw, year after year, since it started 13 years ago. A wide variety of experts walked people through the ins and outs of North Coast plants and wildlife.
It doesn't take long for some people to get hooked. Sam Crosby of Glen Cove, New York was here Saturday for his second Godwit Days visit. He came out last year to see his sister-in-law and ended up buying some land on the coast.
”I'm just biding my time before we make the big move,” Crosby said. “It's gorgeous here.”
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_8991136