Counting Bugs to Measure Stream Water Quality

This northern leopard frog enjoys the excellent water quality of the Kokosing River in Millwood, where one of the volunteer monitoring stations is located.  (Photo by Don Comis)

When I attended a biological stream monitoring workshop conducted by "Save Our Streams" in Maryland, I was pleased to learn it was fun and easy to assess water quality by identifying and counting water creatures, mostly larvae, with the help of a one-page chart.

It's just fun for all to stand in a stream holding a seine net to catch the creatures and then count and release them.  I did it with children at our church in Maryland for about a year.

The idea is to see how diverse the organisms are, indicating good water quality, and to see if the good water quality indicating organisms like mayfly nymphs outweigh poor water quality indicators like snails and other scavengers.

This came to mind when I saw that there will be a similar workshop conducted near where I am currently, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, on May 28.  

We're blessed here to have the very clean Kokosing River and volunteers that monitor it regularly at several locations.

To learn more about the upcoming workshop, go to:  http://watercraft.ohiodnr.gov/sqm .  Also, check out a longer version of this blog at my website:  www.doncomis.simplesite.com.

 

 

 

 

Salamander Search Yields Only Calls from Great Horned Owl and Sheriff's Office

Northern dusky salamander found under shale rock in shale seepage area near Little Jelloway Creek, near Apple Valley, on August 1, 2013.  (Photo by Don Comis)

April is here, the buds are turning green on my neighbor's shrub, the daytime temperatures are pretty warm--but still it feels like March going out like a lion.  As the winds picked up and the temperatures fell around 6 tonight, it felt really cold.


This gives me an excuse to skip a night search for the salamander migration tonight.


I spent about two and a half hours last night listening for woodcocks the first half hour and then sitting on a bench by the Kokosing River looking for migrating salamanders for an hour.  Nothing, but I did get to hear a call I think came from a Great Horned owl.


My other surprise was getting a call from the sheriff's office after a deputy saw my car late at night in an isolated parking lot.  He used my license plate to call my wife and check to see I was ok.  She gave him my cell phone number and I returned his call and explained what I was doing, or tried to.  My wife and I both thanked the sheriff's office for checking on me.


It's another example of what can happen to zealous naturalists.  I have an even better story about that I'll tell someday!


That call and the dense fog on the way home late last night also makes me glad that conditions don't seem right for salamanders tonight. 

Tips from DNR Expert for Seeing Mass Salamander Migration

Longtail salamander on his way to freedom after release from my container, along the Kokosing River in Millwood, Ohio, on August 7, 2013.  (Photo by Don Comis)

After getting tips from Jim McCormac, with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, (JimMcCormac.blogspot.com), I'm convinced for the first time that I will see the mass salamander migration when it occurs at Kenyon College.

I wrote to him on his blog last night and this morning, here was his thorough answer:

"Above 50 degrees is best, although the animals will move in smaller numbers in the 40's. It doesn't matter if it is actually raining, just that it has recently and the ground is wet. This often means being out in the rain, though. Usually amphibians are moving by 9 pm if conditions are right, and may continue all night if conditions remain warm and wet enough."

This means that I was wrong that it had to be raining during the migration.  It also means that the  migration goes on from about 9 p.m. to just before daybreak.  So I can arrive anytime during that six hour window.  All I have to do is keep an eye out on a day with rain in the forecast and a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees or more, the more the better, during the night.

So, for example, this Friday is promising as far as rain during the day probably leaving the ground wet that night and a high of 54 degrees Fahrenheit.  But, the night low will be below 40 degrees F.  That night, around 8 p.m., I'll have to go outside and see if the ground is wet from the day's rains and check the temperature.  If it stays 54 degrees F, say, at 8 p.m., it would be worth a try.  But it doesn't sound like a night that a mass migration will continue for six hours.

That might mean I have to try a two hour watch on two or three nights to see the biggest migration, but that's doable, compared to staying out all night and doing that more than few times!

Hope for Salamander Migration Soon

One of the first salamanders I've captured and learned to photograph as they "escape" the container I place them in.  I photographed this northern red on July 28, 2013, along Little Jelloway Creek near Apple Valley.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Probably the first frog I've photographed successfully.  This northern leopard frog was quite a ham, once I learned I couldn't use the salamander release trick to photograph him or her.  He would just jump out of sight when the container was opened.  So I just followed him along the banks of the Kokosing River in Millwood, Ohio, until he "froze",  hoping I wouldn't see him.  (Photographed on August 7, 2013 by Don Comis)

Jim McCormac's blog last night gave me hope that I still have a shot at seeing the mass migration of salamanders to vernal pools where they mate and lay eggs.  He confirms that this tough winter has delayed the mass migration, while individual salamanders and frogs have made the trip.

But the mass migration triggered by the combination of night, rain, and warm temperatures hasn't happened yet.  He believes it will happen in a week or two.  Right now, I'm guessing Thursday or Friday, based on weather forecasts.

In taking a back route the other day to a pond near my house to photograph a flock of redhead ducks, canvasbacks, and scaups, I found a mini-pond near wet woodland near the big pond.  This mini-pond is much bigger than the vernal pool I'm looking at in Gambier, Ohio.  Last year, I dismissed it when it looked only like a drainage gully.  The major snows of this winter must have swelled this vernal pool, if that's what it is.

I can confirm it by asking questions of the neighbors of the pool or by checking for eggs or waiting to see if it dries up in late summer as vernal pools do.   If it turns out to be one, it would be the first vernal pool I found on m own.  And it will be in my neighborhood, which I wished for.

This was the best I could do as I hid from this skittish flock of redheads, canvasbacks, and scaups on a recent evening.  The possible vernal pool in my neighborhood is near this full-sized pond.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Fourteen Deer but No Salamanders Yet

On my way to the vernal pool at sunrise today, I saw this herd of seven deer trying to figure me out.  (Photo by Don Comis) on

 
With light snow overnight, conditions aren't exactly right for the vernal pool show.  But it's always fun going there.  I made the trip again early this morning.  Again I was greeted by wild turkeys gobbling.  And I had a staring contest with a herd of 7 deers that were grazing in a cornfield on leftovers from last year's harvest.

And a mockingbird showed me the way out of there.  This time he had a buddy, a female I'll bet.  What I like about mockingbirds is that rather than hide from you, they show themselves to let you know you're not welcome in their territory.  So you can't miss them.

It was very cold at first, but by the time I got to the vernal pool the sun had risen over the horizon and lit up the Kokosing River and the vernal pool,  just 5 to 20 feet from the river.

I was back at my car at 8:50 a.m. Daylight Savings Time and had plenty of time to shop for groceries.  By around 11 a.m., I was back on Apple Valley Drive when I saw another herd of 7 deer grazing in the spillway area of the Apple Valley Lake dam.  At the same moment, two bluebirds flew, reminding me of the wildlife closer to home.

Spring Salamander Migration Any Day Now!

The Kokosing River at sunrise today, a very short distance from the vernal pool the amphibians will soon migrate en masse to.  (Photo by Don Comis)

This morning's view of the vernal pool that reduces snowmelt flow to the Kokosing while providing a safe spring nursery for amphibian eggs.  (Photo by Don Comis)

The great annual migration of spotted and other salamanders is close, I can just smell it in the air, literally.

I took a second trip to the vernal pool at Kenyon College early this morning.  Rain was in the air and the temperature was 37 degrees Fahrenheit.  A night or early morning rain at 40 degrees are two of three main conditions to stir the salamanders and other amphibians out of their muddy hibernation places.

But there was still snow and ice in and around the vernal pool.  Until that melts, it's not going to happen, but when it melts, it won't be long.

Besides the benefits of getting up at 5:30 a.m., I got to see a skunk, hear a bunch of wild turkeys gobbling, see 8 to 13 deer, and get confronted by the local neighborhood watch mockingbird again--in that order.