0900-1110. Today I took my Field Methods class to a privately-owned rock quarry pond up the Little River Drainage, SE of Glide, Oregon. I had previously visited this location almost a month ago and obtained permission from the landowner to take the class out there. We drew rough maps of the site, collected some simple habitat data (water and air temp were both about 58 F), then began the search for amphibians. We located Northern Pacific Treefrogs tadpoles and one adult, as well as several adult Rough-skinned Newts, just as I had on my previous visit. This time, however, all in one small area near the back of the pond, one student found a concentration of Red-legged Frog tadpoles, which was exciting. While at the quarry pond area we also observed multiple Western Fence Lizards, a large garter snake (Thamnophis sp.), and one juvenile Racer. We started finding a lot of critters just before we needed to leave: Aaaaaaaah! It would have been easy to stay another couple hours!

Posted on May 9, 2017 11:02 PM by umpquamatt