Big Thicket National Preserve

Hi All,

I am in Big Thicket National Preserve for the weekend. Despite some recent rain, the conditions are perfect for small mammal spotlighting (dry leaf litter and nightly termite flights), and there are some well-groomed trails where you don’t have to watch your step too much while walking them at night. These trails are designed to cover the maximum diversity of habitat. I got seven species of small spp. last night (smaller than an armadillo, an opossum or a rabbit) – that’s my record for eastern USA. (My last record was six, but that was in the Everglades before the python plague.) Watched an Eastern mole (blonde race) hunting for winged termites – that was really cool. The other spp. were S short-tailed shrew, Seminole bat, cotton and golden mice, E woodrat, and cotton rat.