Thread by @jenylamb

#Minnesota #herp #fieldwork thread:

Spent yesterday afternoon with an undergrad researcher (Alex) hoping to find breeding blue-spotted #salamanders

Here's one of the ponds where we've got traps out. 🤞🤞🤞
Didn't see any sally activity, but other #amphibians were active!

The three ponds we are trapping for #salamanders had *deafening* choruses of boreal chorus frogs (Pseudacris maculata).

Here's male chorus #frog . You can't see it in the pic, but the skin of their throats turns yellow when they've been calling.

Alex's first wood #frog catch of the season!

Wood frog males were calling while supported by submerged, dead grasses in another pond we checked for #salamanders .

This other pond had so much vegetation that it could be tough to spot calling #frogs at times (plus they duck under the surface when you get close).

Here's a #WheresWaldo for #amphibians pic - find the resting male wood frog!

Alex & I both saw our first wood #frog egg masses yesterday! He spotted this group of eggs. They aren't too far along in development (I need to review dev timing papers to figure out approx age), and we didn't see eggs in other ponds where we heard choruses of frogs.

A close up of one clutch of wood #frog eggs (taken underwater).

We're headed out later today to check the traps we set in what we hope 🤞 are blue-spotted #salamander ponds.

Some studies indicate glow sticks improve trapping efficacy for mole salamanders, so we're giving that a try.

This is our first project targeting blue-spotted #salamanders , and my first #spring in the midwest, so there is going to be a #fieldwork learning curve.

But this is a pretty neat spot to learn 🙃

🤞

Happy #SalamanderSaturday #fieldwork success! Found a female blue-spotted #salamander in our traps at one pond.

Along with eggs that I think are blue-spotted #salamander eggs (from a 2nd pond).

This single egg was spotted by Alex (might have to nickname him eagle eyes), and we found about 4 others also laid among the submerged grasses.

Just in time for Easter, we also spotted new wood frog eggs and what I believe were boreal chorus #frog egg masses.

I think this is another chorus #frog egg mass, but it was larger and had more eggs than the others we saw. Though didn't seem large enough or spherical enough to be a wood frog egg mass.

This is my first spring working with these species of #amphibians , so I'd be happy to hear from folks with more experience (@BenardMF @FieldEcology @amphibs @RD_Denton - thoughts?)

And a better close up of one of the singly-laid eggs (which I'm thinking are blue-spotted #salamander eggs)