Upland Sandpiper. Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Montana
In the spirit of Unemployment, I am beginning my morning with some Jim Beam Rye in my coffee. This seems like a proper way to celebrate Thursday.
Today, I offer you no cohesive theme whatsoever, but I do like all of these photos. The sandpiper was one of only 2 out of god-knows-how-many that I saw over the summer (love that prairie) that allowed for close approach. They are life-enhancing birds.
Yellow-winged Tanger. Chavarrillo, Mexico.
This is one of the many Yellow-winged Tanagers that dropped by our hawk counting tower and provided some extra entertainment. They seem well adapted to towns and are easy to come by...maybe one will pop into Texas some day.
Great Blue Heron. San Francisco, CA.
This bird was foraging at the Sutro Baths, ruins of an old bathhouse right on the beach.
TOAD. Chavarrillo, Mexico.
A toadular creature. I have no idea what sort (TELL ME). There were a few living in a little watering hole for livestock outside of town.
Sandhill Crane. Camas National Wildlife Refuge, ID.
I stopped at Camas last May on my way to North Dakota. I had never heard of the place before, but it was full of birds that wanted me to observe the crap out of them. A few cranes were hanging around, including one on a nest.
The toad looks to be a Bufo (maybe sub-genus rhinella) and not a Spea. The spade-foots have a vertical pupil and this one has a horizontal pupil. Other than that the hands and fingers don't look like Spea either, toes are too long and defined. Maybe a young, smaller Bufo (rhinella) marinus. Nose and ridges does look a bit like Gulf Coast Toad (Incilius valliceps) and size would be right. Hard to guess further than that without any back color or paratoid glands to look at. But the algae IS pretty. I'll bet one drink on Gulf Coast toad, but not a whole round.
ReplyDeleteAdding it may be the Gulf Coast Incilius nebulifer depending on exactly where this was found as the split occurs right around the Veracruz State.
ReplyDeleteThanks JK....definitely not a spadefoot, agreed. Chavarrillo is in the foothills, more or less due west of Veracruz city, if that makes any guesses easier.
ReplyDeleteI know that GBHE. I met him at Sutro.
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