The large frogs were fairly easy to identify as Southern Leopard Frogs; a light spot on the tympanum, and a light line running from under the eye to the foreleg. This was probably about as far west as this species could be found, being replaced further west and south by the Rio Grande Leopard Frog.  Some of the deeper pools in Bee Creek held some fairly large tadpoles, probably Bullfrogs judging from the size and the lateness of the year.  This area certainly had its share of large ranids.

It took me a while to figure out what the smaller frogs were.  These little anurans were very wary of me and quickly hopped into the ferns and other vegetation lining the banks.  After a while I decided just to stand still and turn into a rock, or a tree, and within a few minutes some of them came back into the open.  They were Blanchard's Cricket Frogs, pretty much like the ones back home, although the dark marks on their thighs were a bit more rounded off.  There were dozens upon dozens of these frogs, most of them quite small, perhaps young adults who were tadpoles a few months earlier.

Plenty of ferns, plenty of cover

Thinking over this froggy state of affairs, I thought this might be the ideal place to find some garter or ribbon snakes.  There would be plenty of food here for a Thamnophis to eat, with a lot of vegetation for cover around a water source.  I spent some time slowly and carefully searching the banks for striped serpents, but all I could turn up were more frogs.  When herping in unfamiliar territory, you make the best educated guesses that you can and hope the herps show up.