My Field Journal

Today, Megan Todd-Thompson, Graham Reynolds, and myself traveled down to Coffee County to meet up with my good friend Richie Wyckoff to search for larval amphibians to get photos for the book. Weather was great with temperatures in the mid 80s and clear skies. We had several great finds, although the trip did cost be a serpentine belt that had to be replaced the next morning. :)

Overall finds : 

Mike Lawton accompanied me to look for Wehrle's Salamanders in Campbell County, Tennessee on 28 March 2010. Very few specimens are known from the state and I wanted to get some photographs for the book. We didn't find much, as it still was fairly chilly in the morning (lows below freezing). However, did see two nice salamanders: a Green Salamander adult and an adult Wehrle's Salamander. Three days later on 31 March 2010, Graham Reynolds and I headed back to the site to try and find more Wehrle's Salamanders. Although we did not succeed in our endeavor, we did turn up six adult and juvenile Green Salamanders and an Eastern Gartersnake.

Overall finds : 

During the night throughout the week, I went out with Bones and his coworker Laura who work for IAP World Services, Inc. at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center to sample for amphibians and other herpetofauna at various localities throughout the Atchafalaya Basin. It was a lot of fun and we caught 12 of the 13 species of anurans found in the Basin. Although I must say that it's a little spooky traveling through the swamp in thick fog after a thunderstorm.

Species: 

In the morning, Bones and I went over to a woodlot behind where Bones used to live in Lafayette to look for snakes and and frogs. We turned up a few interesting finds. A couple days later we set some minnow traps in hopes of catching a siren or amphiuma. Instead, a 5 lb snapping turtle managed to get into one of the traps and was a major pain in the ass when we tried to free it.