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Southeastern hills San Francisco bay - May 1, 2011

pete

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I was at one of my favorite parks today with the intent of seeing some golden eagles. I saw none, but it turned out to be a great herping trip. Although I wasn't really prepared with my camera. We happened across a few vernal pools and cow ponds and I found a lot of fun things. It was just end of the rainy season and the start of drier times, but the timing seemed to be perfect.

It was the tadpole concentrations that pulled me into investigated further. The only caudate I found was Taricha torosa, but they weren't too abundant. The neat thing was one pond that had some completely orange newts and orange with a few dorsal black spots mixed in with regular looking California newts. Maybe that's common, but it's the first time that I've seen all orange ones. The newts were pretty deep in the pond, so it was hard to get catch one to get a good photos. I only saw one paired up, and the rest just seemed to be chilling in the deep cool water.

In addition to that I saw a some red-legged frogs (although, none of them had red legs), one California toad hiding in a ground squirrel hole, a bunch of tadpoles, some pond turtles, and a gopher snake.

I'll post some habitat and animal pics
 

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pete

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More photos
 

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John

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Great finds and nice photos. Thanks for sharing.
 

Molch

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awesome pics, and beautiful herping country.

We have golden eagles by the truckload; would happily trade a few for some Taricha torosa :)
 
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