Found this one up a hill in Mason Park last weekend. She climbed quite a ways from the ponds to find a spot to lay her eggs.

These things make the Green Anoles I grew up with look like Disney characters.

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.

Al Ott identified this as an Italian Ruin Lizard, a.k.a. Italian Wall Lizard, Podarcis sicula. Rob Jett also recognized it from a trip to Rome. They’re an invasive species that has been settling small colonies on Long Island for the last three decades or so, and they’re expanding. So far all we have is this one specimen, but I suspect we’ll see more as the summer progresses.

How they make it through a New York winter I have no idea; but apparently they can do that, something few native American lizards can do.

Besides the lizard and various plants and insects, we tallied over 30 species this morning:

• Great Blue Heron
• American Woodcock
• Rock Pigeon
• Mourning Dove
• Chimney Swift
• Downy Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Willow Flycatcher
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• White-eyed Vireo
• Warbling Vireo
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Black-capped Chickadee
• House Wren
• American Robin
• Gray Catbird
• European Starling
• Cedar Waxwing
• Yellow Warbler
• American Redstart
• Common Yellowthroat
• Eastern Towhee
• Song Sparrow
• Northern Cardinal
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Common Grackle
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Baltimore Oriole
• House Finch
• American Goldfinch
• House Sparrow

The highlights for me were the White-eyed Vireo and the American Woodcock, both possible nesters at the site. We confirmed Downy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker as definite breeders here. We elevated several other species from possible to probable status. (The more often you see them in the same spot, and the longer they stick around, the more likely it is they’re breeding.)

We’ll visit a couple of times more before the breeding season is over to try to confirm a few more. American Redstart is tantalizing. There were quite a few around the site, and this is quite late for them, but they’re late breeders. If they’re still around in July–I’ve never seen them that late in the city–they’re almost certainly breeding.

The city has finally noticed the site, which is not a good thing. When the parks department gets a little money, they like to erect buildings, install pavement, lay out a few ballfields with artificial turf, let the dogs run everywhere, and generally eliminate anything that a breeding bird might want. They’re a couple of meetings later this month on the 19th and 30th (don’t know where yet) at which the Parks Dept. should reveal their plans for the site. They’re a little peeved that word of the meetings is getting out. They’re required by law to open these meetings to the public, but they try to keep them as quiet as possible to make sure no one notices anything they’re up to until the bulldozers arrive. Drop me a line if you’re interested in attending, and I’ll let you know what’s up as soon as I have more details.