We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am
Last week we had a very pleasant day, mild temperature and calm sunny conditions for our hike. We decided to drive up onto the high plateau area to the south of Bobs Lake as we were sure the snow which had kept us away for some time would be all gone by now. We parked not far from Angel Lake and took a side road the short distance to the southern part of Gentian Lake. This was just to take a quick look at the flooded road which some of us had not seen before and, in my case, had not checked out for several years. We wondered if it was still a barrier to hiking. Retracing our steps and after walking south on the main road for a while we sidetracked again to pay a quick visit to the picnic area beside Angel Lake. Being far too early for lunch we continued south and headed in the direction of the hunters camp beside a large beaver pond where we had recently finished cutting a trail I started quite a few years ago with Sylvia Dunn. As we crossed a boggy area on the old part of the trail one hiker spotted and caught a good sized frog that was quickly identified as a rare Red-legged Frog. In Canada this species is only found on Vancouver Island, a small part of the adjacent mainland and a few islands in between. On Texada the species in recent years has only been found from Gillies Bay north to Blubber Bay so it is exciting to find that it also still survives on high ground in the south. We were lucky that this individual was very docile as they tend to be fast moving and hard to catch and certainly not easy to photograph. In my photo below it's sitting on the lovely red variety of Sphagnum moss where we found it. You can clearly see the golden eyes that are a distinct feature of this species, but the bright red underside of the legs and belly are hidden.
There is now funding for the conservation of this blue listed native and conservation work and distribution studies have begun and should continue for several years. It's believed that the species has suffered severe population pressure for many decades from the highly invasive non-native Bullfrog.
JD.
A fine specimen of a dark form of the native Red-legged frog sitting on unusual red Sphagnum moss near Angel Lake.
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