education | Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas

Category: education

Herp Update: Continuing Migration and Fundraiser– December 7, 2021

Posted on December 7, 2021 by

Jim Andrews Posted in amphibians, education, frogs, road search, salamander, support, updates

Man in blue raincoat, facing the camera, holds an adult snapping turtle head downward. The turtle is almost the size of the man's torso.

Continuing Amphibian Activity Herpers, with the temperatures at 50°F and the rains becoming heavy around 5 PM, I had to run over to the Morgan Road amphibian crossing here in Salisbury again last night. Given that this was both warmer…

Herp Update: recent herp activity, fundraising, and our new course – December 3, 2021

Posted on December 3, 2021 by

Jim Andrews Posted in education, herping, road search, salamander, support, updates

Recent Amphibian Activity (last night) Herpers, aside from the occasional reports of snakes and salamanders spending the winter in people’s cellars, current herptile reports have stopped coming in. That said, I did head out to the Morgan Road amphibian crossing…

Herp Update: Annual Fundraiser and a New Course “Conserving Vermont Reptiles” – November 29, 2021

Posted on November 29, 2021 by

Jim Andrews Posted in education, support, updates

A New Course Offering: Conserving Vermont’s Reptiles January through May 2022 through Vermont Family Forests Learn the identification, natural history, survey techniques, conservation, and management of Vermont’s turtles, snakes, and lizards with herpetologist Jim Andrews. The class will begin with…

Tagged with: class, conservation, course, education, fundraiser, fundraising, gofundme, reptiles

Herp Update & Upcoming Gus Speth Presentation

Posted on November 9, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in education, event, frogs, snakes, turtles, updates

Herpers, last weekend with the temperatures soaring to 70 F, a variety of reptiles and amphibians were active that are not usually active at this time of year. Late Fall Herp Activity I received reports of Northern Map Turtles and…

Ratsnake eggs and embryo

Posted on September 13, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in conservation, education, snakes, updates

Folks, Since I was just writing about snakes giving birth and laying eggs last week, I thought I would share with you an exciting find made by Karen Sommerlad and David Cobb of Sunderland. Just last week they were moving…

Tagged with: eastern ratsnake, egg, embryo, range

Common Gartersnake giving birth

Posted on September 11, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in education, snakes, updates

Folks, Kate Kelly forwarded this link to a very cool video of a Common Gartersnake giving birth. You can see a couple other recently born snakes moving around while the star of the show is trying to break free of…

Tagged with: gartersnake, live birth, video

Conservation and Natural History of Vermont’s Bumble Bees

Posted on July 30, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in education, event, updates

For those who missed Kent McFarland’s excellent Zoom presentation on the conservation of Vermont’s Bumble Bees, you can watch the recorded version at your leisure through this link: https://val.vtecostudies.org/events/recorded-events/ This presentation was brought to you by the Salisbury Conservation Commission. …

Tagged with: bees, community, education

Vermont Bumble Bees: webinar offered by Salisbury Conservation Commission

Posted on July 10, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in conservation, education, event

Did you know that Vermont once had 17 species of Bumble Bee and that 4 are now feared extinct? Learn about these important pollinators and how we can help conserve them, at our upcoming free Zoom webinar. The Salisbury Conservation…

Tagged with: bees, bumblebee, conservation, insects, Kent McFarland, pollinators

Erosion control and herps: please use fiber or blanket, not plastic

Posted on June 26, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in conservation, education, snakes

Erosion-control matting that contains welded plastic netting is bad news for snakes, which is why we are very thankful that the Vermont Department of Transportation (VTrans) has severely limited use of this product, as have state land managers. That said, the…

Tagged with: erosion, erosion control, products, safety

Vernal Pool Video by K. Briggs

Posted on May 11, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in amphibians, conservation, education, frogs, salamander

Kiley Briggs of the Orianne Society put together an excellent video on vernal pools. It is roughly 30 minutes long and covers vernal pools, amphibians that use them, egg-mass ID, and a few invertebrates that use vernal pools. It is…

Tagged with: amphibian eggs, amphibians, frog, salamanders, spring, vernal pool