April Visit To The Walls Of Jericho

Last Friday night was a hard freeze around the Tennessee Valley, so of course we went out early Saturday morning to Hurricane Creek in the Walls of Jericho property to collect telescope shiners. We were able to find telescopes without too much trouble. Water temperature was 10.5 C, down from 13 C two weeks ago. Luckily only two of my assisting students fell in the water, and only one had to call it quits and warm up in the truck after changing clothes...

Besides the telescopes we found three interesting species of fish: a fair number of flame chubs in a side pool fed by springs (didn't keep any), a pair of large greenside darters in breeding coloration (didn't keep them) and a single male blotchside logperch in breeding colors, also released. We'd seen blotchside logperch while snorkeling but had never netted one. This is a rare, widely-scattered species that's probably deserving of Federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. In Alabama it's listed by NatureServe as S1, Critically Imperiled, found only in the upper Paint Rock River system (like Hurricane Creek) and parts of the Cypress Creek system in Lauderdale County. So it was a thrill to net one and be able to photograph it. Below are two photos of this fish still in the seine net; I didn't want to handle him anymore than necessary. In the first photo the characteristic side blotches of this species are visible, and in the second photo the bright red line at the top of the dorsal fin is visible. The pig-like snout is also clearly visible. The snout is used to flip over small stones so that any small invertebrates under the stones can be eaten.

The next photo is of three of the students, Emily, Loren and Andrew on and around my truck. My 12-foot seine used to capture the blotchside logperch is leaning against the tailgate.