Vertebrates at Jordan Lake (north end of Big Woods Road)

October 26, 2001

1:30-4:00 PM

sunny, chilly, with a stiff NW wind

Amphibia
	Southern Cricket Frog	Acris gryllus	few
	Green Treefrog	Hyla cinerea	lots in grassy places
Reptilia
	Florida Cooter	Chrysemys floridana	just the empty carapace with enough skin to see the pattern with some long yellow stripes and a relatively domed shape
	Florida Cooter is another coastal plain species that just barely extends into the Piedmont in the Jordan Lake basin -- River Cooter is the usual species in the Piedmont
	Eastern Mud Turtle	Kinosternon subrubrum	just the carapace left on the feeding platform of a mink!
	Redbelly Snake	Storeria occipitomaculata	one mysteriously dead -- definitely this species and NOT a Ringneck Snake -- the belly was plain orange without black spots
Birds
	Great Blue Heron		6 nests high in trees from last summer
	perhaps the first nesting colony of Great Blue Herons discovered near Chapel Hill!
	Black Vulture		one sailed overhead -- fast
	Turkey Vulture		several barely staying in control in the strong wind
	Red-tailed Hawk		one circled in the gusty wind then took off across country
	no woodpeckers -- usually woodpeckers hang out around the dead trees in beaver impoundments -- perhaps there was too much wind for them in the open
	Belted Kingfisher		one circled overhead a couple of times -- its harsh rattle could just barely be heard above the wind
	Eastern Phoebe		one one an exposed perch -- just like at Mason Farm
Mammals
	American Beaver		dam, lodge, impoundment -- but the beavers were out of sight
	beavers had created a large impoundment filled with floating mats of vegetation -- a true bog!
	Common Raccoon		few tracks
	Mink		a fallen stump in the marsh was worn down with much use -- droppings full of bits of crayfish (and the mud turtle shell) suggested a mink was the user