upon a species of lizard that has gone relatively undocumented in Washington County.

Eric Stiffler and Ian McGuinness, both 13, were riding their dirt bikes recently when they noticed some curious-looking creatures scurrying along a trail and decided to capture one.

“We got off our dirt bikes, and we walked toward them,” Stiffler said. “They seemed like they were scared, so we tried to catch one.”

“But they’re really fast,” added McGuinness.

The boys said it took 25 minutes for the two of them to grab one of the elusive lizards, which zig-zagged away, seeking shelter in piles of rocks and coal. After learning that the animals could drop their tails as a defense mechanism, they finally managed to secure a few specimens.

The two showed their findings to a local man, Eric Kramer, who contacted the Pennsylvania Herpetological Education and Resource Project for assistance in identifying the animals. The creatures turned out to be northern fence lizards, a subspecies of the eastern fence lizard.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission website recognizes the northern fence lizard as the only one of its genus in Pennsylvania. The commission describes adult lizards as being gray to brown, with belly coloration ranging from whitish to greenish-blue to pale blue. They grow to a size of four to seven inches.

Field herpetologist Jason Poston, who runs the PAHERP website, said this may be the first documented fence lizard population in Washington County. He said the lizards have a spotty distribution throughout the area, and that other populations of the animal may have simply gone undocumented. As of Monday, Poston still was working to formally verify and document the finding.

Dr. Tim Maret, professor of biology at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, who assists Poston with PAHERP, said the lizards are a species of spiny lizard that live in areas with rocky debris, where they forage for invertebrates and bask in the sun.

“They have actually been reported fairly extensively in Allegheny and Beaver, but not in Washington County,” he said.

Local academics supported Maret’s assessment regarding the lack of the species’ documentation in the county.

“Based solely on three summers of sampling at our biological field station on Hallam Road, out Route 40, we have never caught or seen a northern fence lizard in our drift fence traps,” said Dr. Robert East, associate professor and director of environmental studies at Washington & Jefferson College.

“At least in Southwestern Pennsylvania, my conclusion is that they are not common,” he added.

“I personally have not seen one, and to my knowledge, one has not been recorded at the Abernathy Field Station,” said Dr. James March, W&J associate professor of biology.

March encouraged amateur naturalists to report sightings to websites such as PAHERP, which help researchers gain a clearer picture of a species’ population and habitat.

In 1955, the Observer-Reporter published an article written by Dr. M. Graham Netting, director of the Carnegie Museum at the time, who was arranging a display of reptiles native to the area – including the northern fence lizard – for the Washington County Fair. He asked readers to keep a watchful eye out for the lizards in an effort to help the museum track down a specimen.

“Residents should watch partially for the northern fence lizard, males of which often do push-ups on fence posts, advertising their presence by flashing their blue chest-patches,” Netting wrote.

As for the boys, they planned to release the lizards back into the wild, prompting a sigh of relief from one of their mothers.

Saturday, April 23, 2011 | 10am-4pm Be sure to stop by if you are in the area.

More information: earthday flyer and PEEC News

What does the survey entail?
Surveys are run in three separate calling periods. There are 10 stops on a route. The survey should start at least 30 minutes after sunset and end before 1 am. The listening period per stop is 5 “effective” minutes. A couple of hours is usually enough time to complete a route. Sampling periods are determined on a regional basis, to reflect when your local species are active. The Pennsylvania sampling windows are as below:

Volunteers are asked to collect data on the “first available night” when conditions are met (in a sampling period; it’s a good frog night). Basically, what’s required is that the volunteer drive the 10-stop route on a given night, listen for and identify species of calling amphibians, and record the data on a standard form. Only one observer can fill out a datasheet and it is preferred that the same person conducts all three surveys in a year. Additional observers can fill out separate datasheets.

Frog Call Quiz
The Frog Call Quiz is a website (www.pwrc.usgs.gov/frogquiz) for learning or refreshing frog call identification skills. Part of the website is available to all people, including the Public Quiz and Frog Call Lookup. The NAAMP Quiz is for participants of the survey. Observers are asked to annually take the frog call quiz and achieve a detection index of 65 or greater. You are allowed to take quiz as many times as needed to achieve this goal.

• Each sound file may have one or more species, include in your answer all the species you are confident are on the sound file.
• You can listen to the sound file more than once.
• Quiz is “open book” as you can use any reference materials that you might use during your surveys.

The Quiz website can be a tool for learning frog calls, as well as other good web-based resources. A CD of PA species calls could be provided by the regional coordinator if preferred.

What do I do if I want to participate?
Send your contact information (name, address, email contact, phone number) to the regional coordinator (c-kgipe@state.pa.us) along with a list of routes that you would like to run, in order of preference. Route availability can be checked on the NAAMP website at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.routeAvailabilityMap.
The coordinator will assign you a route and send you your observer ID for logging onto the NAAMP website. You can then access the website and begin working on your FrogQuiz. Datasheets and additional training information will also be sent before the survey season begins. Once you have collected data, you can go to the data entry portion of the website and enter your survey data. You then send your completed data form to the regional coordinator for review and filing.

Download Printable Document

Excerpt:
“Thaddeus Cinereus lead a normal life for a young salamander, until his village was attacked by Abaddon and his snake army. Follow Thaddeus as he’s joined by Hadwin the Grey Treefrog, Scott the Spadefoot Toad and Wallace, the flying frog on a journey to stop the snakes and bring peace back to their land.”

Order The Quest for the Flying Frog from Creativespace

Order The Quest for the Flying Frog from Amazon

The event is occurring Friday, September 24th into Saturday, September 25th. Dormitory housing is also available for $10 a person if you are interested.

If this event sounds like something you would like some more information about please visit http://www.peec.org/bioblitz/index.html or send an email to bioblitz@peec.org.

The new Museum Record Map provides users with a view of historic county data of reptiles and amphibians in Pennsylvania. Records from nine various museum collections have been compiled to develop these maps, displaying over 150 years of information dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Although the museum data may not include a fully accurate distribution of species within Pennsylvania counties, information shown in the maps allows for a greater understanding of former and current territories.

As a supplement to the PAHERP database, these historic records are hoped to increase awareness and insight of reptiles and amphibians in the state.

Users can access both the Taxon Maps and Museum Record Maps on the PAHERP Database species list. Individual map links are located to the right of each species name.

-PAHERP Team

Please get involved and help spread the word! Remember that only a small proportion of our public is aware that frogs are disappearing, and that amphibian conservation efforts will not be successful until amphibian declines are common knowledge: think of how long it has taken for any political action on global warming to occur! Politicians rarely act until the public demands action. Our goal is to make the amphibian extinction crisis common knowledge by April 30th, 2010: help make it happen!

Save The Frogs Day is a perfect time for teachers and students to focus on amphibian conservation, learn about amphibian extinctions, and discuss ways that we can all contribute to amphibian conservation efforts.

Find out how you can get involved!
http://savethefrogs.com/day

Think you’re ready for spring?

Toads, frogs and salamanders that have been buried in frozen mud all winter are ready, too.

Wood frogs, native to Berks, start calling in February.

Here’s how to find out what they sound like.

Most species, including spring peepers, also Berks natives, emerge in heavy rains to breed in March or later. They call to find mates.

Amphibians all over the world are dying out.

How well are the species in Berks doing?

Read the full article at bctv.org

Our resources has also been changed to Learning Zone. Within the learning zone you will find Education Materials from PAHERP, along with quick access to the Kids Zone and Teachers Zone.

Be sure to also follow us of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.

Happy Herping,
PAHERP Team