From: Doug Von Gausig <>
> Late April will be spectacular, Walter. In fact I'll be conducting a few=
> trips through "my" marsh, Tavasci Marsh for the
> <http://www.birdyverde.org/>Verde Valley Birding
> and<http://www.birdyverde.org/> nature Festival on April 23rd and 24th.=
> Your macro will get a good workout! If you're planning on an overnighter =
in
> the Verde Valley, let me know, we have space.
The timing I have to meet will probably put me through your area a bit
before that.
At this point I've got a rough route as far as Prescott from here, still
sorting out the last part of Arizona. Want to avoid busy roads as much
as possible. I've not yet worked out the miles and timing of the days.
Still looking into what to add to the route.
I've considerable equipment for macro, but also will probably bring
along one telescope for really long shots/visual. I keep thinking of
bringing astronomy stuff, but probably won't. Storage of digital images
that are eating space at 5.9megs/shot is going to be a challenge, that's
5 times what my older digital files were. I'm hoping to be set up to
store about 5000, hopefully that will be way excessive. It will help
that the camera has a good display that I can check images on to avoid
storing no good stuff. I've already got 3 1gig cards, will probably add
another before the trip. Even now that's more than 450 shots before
having to clean cards. I expect that my main limitation for photography
will be time.
> Frogs are scarce as, well, frog's hair, here in the Verde Valley -
> Bullfrogs have made fine lunches of most of the other frogs. Lots of
> Wodehouse's Toads, though. In the Chiricahua Mountains, to the SE, there =
is
> the
> <http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/lfrog/index.HTML>Chiric=
ahua<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/lfrog/index.HTML>
> Leopard Frog, which is very rare, and there are a few tree frogs here and=
> there, but nothing like your stomping grounds, for sure.
Yes we have quite a variety of treefrogs here. Last trip West I heard
one short call from the Arroyo treefrog, but that was in the fall. I'm
hoping to record it this trip. And get photos if possible.
Of course recording bullfrogs in Arizona would be ho hum, they are
rather plentiful here, in their native range where they are not the
problem they are out there. Woodhouse Toads are similar to one of our
toads, but the call is a bit different. There are several other toads
listed for your area. Probably much less common, but I have the latest
distribution maps (unpublished) for the US for frogs and toads. That's a
start though it's mostly only by county.
Walt
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