Check out other books here.

What does the survey entail?
Surveys are run in three separate calling periods. There are 10 stops on a route. The survey should start at least 30 minutes after sunset and end before 1 am. The listening period per stop is 5 “effective” minutes. A couple of hours is usually enough time to complete a route. Sampling periods are determined on a regional basis, to reflect when your local species are active. The Pennsylvania sampling windows are as below:

Volunteers are asked to collect data on the “first available night” when conditions are met (in a sampling period; it’s a good frog night). Basically, what’s required is that the volunteer drive the 10-stop route on a given night, listen for and identify species of calling amphibians, and record the data on a standard form. Only one observer can fill out a datasheet and it is preferred that the same person conducts all three surveys in a year. Additional observers can fill out separate datasheets.

Frog Call Quiz
The Frog Call Quiz is a website (www.pwrc.usgs.gov/frogquiz) for learning or refreshing frog call identification skills. Part of the website is available to all people, including the Public Quiz and Frog Call Lookup. The NAAMP Quiz is for participants of the survey. Observers are asked to annually take the frog call quiz and achieve a detection index of 65 or greater. You are allowed to take quiz as many times as needed to achieve this goal.

• Each sound file may have one or more species, include in your answer all the species you are confident are on the sound file.
• You can listen to the sound file more than once.
• Quiz is “open book” as you can use any reference materials that you might use during your surveys.

The Quiz website can be a tool for learning frog calls, as well as other good web-based resources. A CD of PA species calls could be provided by the regional coordinator if preferred.

What do I do if I want to participate?
Send your contact information (name, address, email contact, phone number) to the regional coordinator (c-kgipe@state.pa.us) along with a list of routes that you would like to run, in order of preference. Route availability can be checked on the NAAMP website at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.routeAvailabilityMap.
The coordinator will assign you a route and send you your observer ID for logging onto the NAAMP website. You can then access the website and begin working on your FrogQuiz. Datasheets and additional training information will also be sent before the survey season begins. Once you have collected data, you can go to the data entry portion of the website and enter your survey data. You then send your completed data form to the regional coordinator for review and filing.

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The event is occurring Friday, September 24th into Saturday, September 25th. Dormitory housing is also available for $10 a person if you are interested.

If this event sounds like something you would like some more information about please visit http://www.peec.org/bioblitz/index.html or send an email to bioblitz@peec.org.

The new Museum Record Map provides users with a view of historic county data of reptiles and amphibians in Pennsylvania. Records from nine various museum collections have been compiled to develop these maps, displaying over 150 years of information dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Although the museum data may not include a fully accurate distribution of species within Pennsylvania counties, information shown in the maps allows for a greater understanding of former and current territories.

As a supplement to the PAHERP database, these historic records are hoped to increase awareness and insight of reptiles and amphibians in the state.

Users can access both the Taxon Maps and Museum Record Maps on the PAHERP Database species list. Individual map links are located to the right of each species name.

Please get involved and help spread the word! Remember that only a small proportion of our public is aware that frogs are disappearing, and that amphibian conservation efforts will not be successful until amphibian declines are common knowledge: think of how long it has taken for any political action on global warming to occur! Politicians rarely act until the public demands action. Our goal is to make the amphibian extinction crisis common knowledge by April 30th, 2010: help make it happen!

Save The Frogs Day is a perfect time for teachers and students to focus on amphibian conservation, learn about amphibian extinctions, and discuss ways that we can all contribute to amphibian conservation efforts.

Find out how you can get involved!
http://savethefrogs.com/day