Our first day in Texas was the most exciting for me. I am a wildlife major so I was really interested in seeing new non-game and game fish species. It was the most important day for me to help me determine if I want to pursue a fisheries degree in the future.
We split up into two groups the night before seining. Half of the group went with Dr. Lauren Dennhardt and my group went with Dr. Casey Williams to sein and electro fish at 3 different streams. We woke up extra early on April 30, and drove to Big Sandy Creek. On the way to the creek I saw new bird species such as the summer tanager, black vulture, and scissor tailed flycatcher. This really helped build my excitement. After we pulled in we found a snake shed laying in the parking lot wondering where it was hiding and what other animal signs we might find. We were all amped up to walk in the thicket and start seining at this point. It was a very new experience for me once we started walking to witness all the hog rooting’s, the thick understory, new smells, and sounds. I felt like I was on a different planet and loved every moment of it.
Once we arrived at the creek, we didn’t waste any time and jumped in the sandy water with the seins. We walked upstream and found a back channel and seined there. That is where we loaded up our sampling buckets with sunfish, warmouths (figure 1), blacktail shiners, mosquito fish, pirate perch, and bull frog tadpoles (figure 2). We seined this spot a few times and Dr. Casey helped us identify fish before we grabbed our gear and moved on.
Figure 1: Warmouth at Big Sandy Creek
Figure 2: Bull Frog Tadpole at Big Sandy Creek
The next location was another spot on Big Sandy Creek where we decided to sein and electro fish (Figure 3). One of the first fish we shocked and netted was a spotted bass. It was the first large fish we caught that day. We worked this section of Big Sandy for a few hours. We found some deep pockets that held a lot of sunfish and pirate perch. When we had our buckets full of new species we sat down with Dr. Casey Williams to identify them.
Figure 3: Electrofishing Big Sandy Creek, Front Josh Becker, Middle Brandon Ramsey, Back right Dalton Scheuring, Back Left Morgan Berquist
After we finished identifying the species from Big Sandy we moved to Turkey Creek. We took a short hike trying to find a good access point however, there was so much thick underbrush we needed to pack up again and find a better access point. On the hike, we did look at some lizards and Mexican blanket flowers before moving on. At the next access point, I caught a cricket frog next to some delicious dew berries. We also saw beautiful cypress trees and the cypress knees coming out of the creek. We seined it for a while and caught the prettiest long eared sunfish (figure 4), sucker, and many other species we caught earlier in the day. Then we saw a cottonmouth (figure 5). Dr. Casey said to be careful after seeing the cottonmouth because when there is one snake there are usually more. About 30 seconds after he said that a diamond back water snake came slithering out of the brush a few feet from some of my classmates. After seeing the snakes up close and personal, we decided it was a good time to stop for the day especially since the sun was going down.
Figure 4: long eared sunfish at Turkey Creek
Figure 5: cottonmouth at Turkey Creek
We went back to our bunk house for the night to eat spaghetti and soak in the things we saw and learned. We ended up with 34 new freshwater species the first day in Texas and saw a wide variety of new organisms. It was an experience I will never forget, and it will benefit me in the future.