Goose Pond Mountain Created Wetlands, 22 April 2007

Kat reflects on her Earth Day experience...

Happy Earth Day!!

After a wonderful day with friends at Bear Mountain (which included a picnic and a trip through the Trailside Museum), I was headed home with my exhausted babies in my car. With all of the excitement of the day and due to the fact that the girls only had a very brief nap on the ride to Bear Mountain, I wanted to kill a little time and allow the girls to sleep a little longer in their carseats. My husband and my friend had decided to ride their bikes home from Bear Mountain, so, alone with my sleeping babies, I decided to take a detour and drive over to Goose Pond Mountain to see what I could see from the front seat of my car. I was dying to get out and get another glimpse of the American Toads mating in the pond, and listen to the cacophany of calls from males looking for mates... but I didn't want to wake the babies to do so! As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the familiar silver Accord... and knew Laurel was here, too. Great minds think alike! Since I couldn't leave the girls alone in the car, I got out and stood on top of one of the gigantic rocks in the lot to scan the landscape for her. I looked unsuccessfully for about five minutes. Soon enough she popped her head up... she had been squatting, taking pictures of the toads! I called her name and she saw me, waved, and walked briskly towards me with her camera. When she came close enough we both started speaking excitedly, me about my day at Bear Mountain, and she about the pond. We laughed about the fact that we had both come back to Goose Pond for the same thing... the toads! She offered to sit with my girls so I could take a look and a listen for myself, so we arranged for her to go back and continue taking her photographs as I waited with my girls in the car. After she finished, she would come and relieve me... and I, too, would go and get some shots of the toads. It was a perfect plan.

Check out some of my pictures... I got great shots of a male toads singing (look at the ripples in the water from the vibrations), some shots of toads mating and laying eggs, and shots of the strings of eggs all over the pond. I also got some video, which I will try to upload soon. I plan to go back again tomorrow, as the eggs hatch roughly 3-12 days after being laid (depending on the weather). I would love to be there for this phenomenon, too.

What a marvelous Earth Day!