education | Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas

Category: education

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

Need some good questions

Posted on May 10, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in amphibians, education, news, salamander, updates

Note from Jim: Herpers, I will be joining Jane Lindholm on VPR’s Vermont Edition this Tuesday May 12 from 1 to 2 PM for a Vermont herp discussion. We usually do this about once a year and it is a…

Tagged with: amphibian eggs, amphibians, Jim Andrews, podcast, radio, salamanders, spring

Amphibian Crossings: Chris Slesar interview

Posted on May 8, 2020 by

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

Chris K. Slesar, Environmental Resources Coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and frequent contributor to the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, did a Facebook Live interview about on habitat connectivity and herps. It’s watchable at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=682259185675742. [Facebook videos apparently…

Tagged with: amphibians, conservation, crossings, herping

Amphibian ID and Ecology – Online Course

Posted on April 20, 2020 by

Jim Andrews Posted in amphibians, education, frogs, salamander

an email from Jim: Herpers, a former student of mine by the name of Zac Cota is offering an online course on Amphibian Identification and Life History through the North Branch Nature Center starting next week. See the information below.…