Fowler’s Toad, Bufo woodhousii fowleri
Robert Moses State Park, 2007-07-07
When I was growing up I was interested in herps (reptiles and amphibians) long before I got seriously interested in birds. However when I moved north, New York just wasn’t as good a place to find snakes and lizards as the swamps of South Louisiana. Nonetheless this year I’ve added two new species to my herp list. First the Italian Ruin Lizard and now this beautiful Fowler’s Toad. (Well, maybe you have to be another toad to see the beauty in it.) There were quite a few of these all over Jones Beach today around the Nature Center.
I was out at Jones Beach looking for a recently reported Yellow-headed Blackbird. I didn’t find it, but I did spot 27 other avian species:
Great Blue Heron
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Common Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
There were also large numbers of Cabbage Whites, Red Admirals, and Orange Sulphurs as well as a single Monarch Butterfly.