Though I am a GIS intern, my awesome mentor has always been quick to help me find opportunities to leave my desk and get some experience out in the field. I’ve gone out and collected seeds. I have tagged fence line and done Wild Horse surveys, but the most memorable and exciting instances, I’ve had was an annual multi-part Columbia Spotted Survey along Dry Creek in Malheur County, Oregon.

I was able to participate in 2 of the 3 parts of the survey that happen annually for these frogs. It’s a project to monitor the survival and recruitment rate of Columbia Spotted Frogs by USFWS in collaboration with the BLM. This Dry Creek population is isolated, so the USFWS takes special notice of these frogs.

The first survey occurs in in April and consists of trekking downstream and counting the number of egg masses. I just missed this survey, as it was the same month I had started working.

The second survey occurs in June. I along with some really cool people from the ODFW, USFWS and the BLM, split into teams, started at opposite ends of the creek, and worked our way down, catching spotted frogs, scanning them for pit-tags and administering tags to frogs that didn’t have them. Then you do the other half of the stream the next day, to try and catch frogs that might have missed or overlooked by the other team. It was so much fun!

Armed with pit tag readers (the same machines that recognize pet microchips), scissors, rulers, weigh bags and scales, we hiked up and down Dry Creek for a full two days, swinging and swooping our nets, trying to keep our footing in a rocky stream. It took a surprising amount of team work and strategizing to catch as many frogs as possible. A lot of them could feel you coming and try and make a hop for it, so you would have to think about the best approach to catching that frog(s).

Once you caught a frog in your net, you had to catch it again in your hand. They could bounce all around in your net like a ping-pong ball, some even had the ups to jump clear out of your net! It took some finagling and dexterity, but once it was in your hand, you held it by its legs, measured it from snout to cloaca, weighed it, then scanned it for a pit-tag, if it had one then you’re done (after shouting out the pit tag number and measurements) and if not, then you make a small incision on its back, insert the pit-tag, and then you’re done (after shouting out all the measurements and pit tag number for the data recorder).

(Columbia Spotted Frog)

The final survey takes places in August and consists mostly of a count for metamorphs. Metamorphs are tadpoles that are in transition to become frogs. It was funny though because I was expecting to see tadpoles with hind legs, but because of the time of year we survey, we’re actually on the tail-end of most of the metamorphic period. Though tadpoles for the most part are done transitioning, it’s still obvious which ones are “metamorphs” . They’re noticeably smaller than sub-adults and adults, so for the survey we literally walk along the stream counting “metamorphs” out loud, while the numbers are recorded by a data recorder. We also take the time to catch any adults we see (there’s a lot less around then there were in June), and repeat the process of what we did in June. We only count the “metamorphs” because they’re too small for pit tags, but don’t get it twisted. It’s still a pretty tough job, these frogs blend in incredibly well, and we were counting the smaller ones!

(Here is a little metamorph that still had his tail)

(Metamorph vs Sub-Adult vs Green Gunk)

The Dry Creek area is great, very pretty, and doing frog surveys in the middle of the summer is amazing, because as hot as it may be, you will get wet, so there is always an opportunity to cool off. Actually one of the best parts about the trek down the creek, is coming along The Pinch, a spot where the water is at least 4 feet high and surrounded on either side by rock walls. You could go around, if you really didn’t want to be drenched from the shoulder down, but who wouldn’t in the June/August heat?

(A picture of our team after wading through The Pinch)

(Dry Creek)

It was also great, because a lot of the views were made even better by the wildlife. We saw garter snakes everywhere. I even got to catch one! We could tell that this particular garter snake had eaten recently, and though it wasn’t frog shaped, we wanted to scan it, to see if had a pit tag inside of it (it didn’t). In June, we walked through this canyon that was filled with Cliff Swallows, flittering around, only to come through and later be screamed at by a Red-tailed Hawk because we were too close to her nest.

(You can see the food bulge, right under my thumb)

(Cliff Swallows)