Some bays are finally filling. Rainbow Bay is still completely dry but some of the bays that tend to hold water for much longer than Rainbow are filling up. We've started to see and/or hear evidence of breeding for leopard frogs, spring peepers, tiger salamanders, spotted salamanders, and ornate chorus frogs. At the H02 wetlands we have seen a good number of leopard frog egg masses and as a result we have started our next big ecotox experiment looking at the effects of copper and zinc on leopard frogs. Set up 234 containers with ~25 eggs each yesterday. Was a crazy day but the experiment is underway!
The photos are of southern leopard frog egg masses (top photo) and tiger salamander egg masses (middle photo) in Ellenton Bay (bottom photo). Unfortunately the tiger salamander egg masses seem to have been nailed by some very cold weather and don't look very good. Hopefully there are more females left to enter the bays and breed now that we are having nice nighttime weather (heat is off and windows are open!).
Some bays are finally filling. Rainbow Bay is still completely dry but some of the bays that tend to hold water for much longer than Rainbow are filling up. We've started to see and/or hear evidence of breeding for leopard frogs, spring peepers, tiger salamanders, spotted salamanders, and ornate chorus frogs. At the H02 wetlands we have seen a good number of leopard frog egg masses and as a result we have started our next big ecotox experiment looking at the effects of copper and zinc on leopard frogs. Set up 234 containers with ~25 eggs each yesterday. Was a crazy day but the experiment is underway!
The photos are of southern leopard frog egg masses (top photo) and tiger salamander egg masses (middle photo) in Ellenton Bay (bottom photo). Unfortunately the tiger salamander egg masses seem to have been nailed by some very cold weather and don't look very good. Hopefully there are more females left to enter the bays and breed now that we are having nice nighttime weather (heat is off and windows are open!).
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