McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

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jonathan
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by jonathan »

Biker Dave wrote:Our paper about the Preserve survey should be in the March 2016 issue of Herp Review!!!

Well done!!!
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Biker Dave
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by Biker Dave »

As soon as someone tells me how to post a pdf file to this forum I will post the paper that resulted from the survey.
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regalringneck
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by regalringneck »

BD, good job leading this project & following it thru to completion. I'm going to pm you my email domain if you'd be so kind as to send said .pdf
If you PM Scott Waters, Im sure he'd be happy to take a digital copy & then link it or post it in such a way, that folks can then access it.
I'm not sure if I ever reached out to you on this, i meant to :p ... but i have a 10 year data set for herps of the cave creek area, it would have been intrsting to compare & contrast that w/ your efforts as part of your discussion section. Oddly enough, the only two expected squamates i never found, were glossy snake & leopard lizzys ??? Years ago, i fd leopards common in certain areas of the mcdowells tho., & its amazing to me, as close as specks get, ... & w/ a ridge of granite connecting the 2 areas ... i don't believe specks ever made it to the mcdowells, so i'll be intrstd in that element as well.

edit; to be a bit more complete, i'll add some other tidbits; unexpected was the presence of regal ringnecks, quite uncommon but present, i wouldnt be a bit surprised if they were in the highest portions of the micky-d's too ... also chuckwallas had a very clean line of presence/absence, canyon treefrogs & mud turtles were like the regals, about as low as im aware they go, & lastly, not too far away we documented mtn kingsnakes & madrean alligator lizzys : }

Again i admire what you've set out to do & accomplished.

... a view across the bridge ... : }

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regalringneck
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by regalringneck »

... what they'd prolly look like : }

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Biker Dave
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by Biker Dave »

John

No specks were found, although there is one spot in the nw corner that might, might, be possible.
We did come across a few Leopard Lizards. Still no Glossy's. The list of species found is in the paper.

Id be very interested to see your data.

Dave
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regalringneck
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by regalringneck »

I talked w/ the folks @ pinnacle peak park about putting a few temporary sines up on the trail "Wanted" cell phone pix of any snakes you see while hiking, but they didnt like it, thought it would freek too many out .. mebbe w/ a new staff by now, they'd be receptive, depending on the messenger too of course (Claire?) That's be the best way to do it.
I did get an interesting new range extension on spex this past year, but not there, need to write it up & then suffer the spotlight of hoaker jaja ... good thing tho, i didnt find it!
I sent you a compendium, so unfortunately you'll have to wade thru alot of other flora & fauna to glean the herp nuggets embedded sporadically throughout. Please treat any mtn kingsnake info on a as&on "need to know" basis ... which is basically no-one :p
I'll mebbe comment furthur after reading your report. / hastas / rxr /
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Biker Dave
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by Biker Dave »

Claire Miller is a pro herp person. She helped me out with the survey when she worked at the MSP.
Although you woukd have to go through the city of Phoenix most likely. There has been some studies done in the Phx Mtn Preserve.

Dave
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regalringneck
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by regalringneck »

Very nice Dave, the numerous pix make it easy on the eyes too. Kudoes again to you & the team. I bet Scott will find a place for it, as might the Tucson groups; Sonoran Herpetologist. So Claire's gone eh, thats too bad, but Phx's gain.
If i were advising you, re: methods, i would have suggested to split your survey effort into night time & daylight & report those result seperately w/ a totals sps list as you did. I would have also recommended using lights & mirrors to get a better look into the many holes/caves & crevices, that would have likely boosted your tortoise #'s considerably. Although the parks folks would resist, it would have been good to settup some board/carpet/tin covertraps grids too.
A pair of pie charts depicting the most commonly encountered sps. (snakes/lizards) would have been a nice addition, as would the stats of mean hours required for a sps specific encounter, that in fact could be a seperate paper & allow your data to be compared w/ itself or other areas in the future (indice of abundance).
I'm surprised you didn't hit blk necked gartersnakes @ your two riparian sites. Also missing, almost certainly present, but hard to detect, especially in daylight (unless DoR), is the saddled leafnose, ( i believe i got 2 in the cave creek area ).
Again, a very fine effort & report. & a great template for others to use.
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sjfriend
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by sjfriend »

Great work Dave. Wish we had more of these programs.

Regalringneck: I do know mirrors / lights were used at least a few time (myself) but can't say about other trips. That's how a gila was found on one day trip. And I too would have liked if they would have let Dave place cover. It might not work long term in AZ but very productive when weather is right.
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Biker Dave
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Re: McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Project

Post by Biker Dave »

MARCH 2017 UPDATE

Believe it or not, this "survey" is still going on, albeit in a different format.

With the advent of the cellphone camera with embedded GPS we are now having preserve staff photograph and send in their observations to a central preserve staffer who then fwd's the info to me to confirm the species.

Now I just need to get caught up in data entry of the observations into the database.

I may still have a one or two outings this year depending on weather and scheduling.
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