BioInventory at Bull Shoals White River State Park -- 7/15/2015

This week the usual BioInventory group gathered at the park, but we came upon some rather unusual flora and fauna. The most surprising to me were two small frogs. The first we saw was this little Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus utricularius):

Several things surprised me about this little fellow. First off, I was surprised by how small he was. I see lots of Southern Leopard Frogs by my pond, but so far the froglets have evaded my observation. This small frog also surprised me by being so brown and so far from any breeding pool. (I know of no ponds near our location along the bike path at BSWRSP.) Yet here he was, with sharply pointed snout, his pattern of leopard spots, and his prominent lateral folds. Very odd  indeed.

The second frog we saw was a young Spring Peeper (Hyla crucifer). I have been trying all year to find a Spring Peeper and have stood right in the middle of a deafening Peeper chorus without being able to catch sight of one. Yet one of our sharp-eyed master naturalists was able to see one hopping along the forest floor at 10 o'clock on a sunny summer morning. Remarkable!

With the wet spring and summer we have had, the wildflowers were still quite plentiful. The prettiest of them all was the Rose Pink (Sabatia angularis). This flower is growing in profusion along many roadsides. At the park we saw a particularly flourishing patch in a strip of land that is bush-hogged and deforested for a high-voltage power line. Oddly there was a profusion of wildflowers along the eastern edge of this strip and a profusion of Lespedeza along the other edge.

Much tinier, but almost as pretty were two different varieties of St. John's Wort. First we saw Reclining St. Andrew's Cross (Hypericum stragulum).

And then somewhat later we saw multiple specimens of False-Spotted St. John's Wort (Hypericum pseudomaculatum -- or perhaps it was Spotted St. John's Wort, Hypericum punctatum).

Equally colorful was a Red Velvet Jumping Spider (perhaps Phidippus apacheanus) that I happened to notice on the stem of one flower.

Finally, after we returned home and I was taking a nature walk out by my pond, I snapped one more photo that I will include as a tribute to my good friend Norm Lavers. This snapshot shows a pair of mating robber flies. I'm not learned enough to identify the species from this tangle of body parts!