Goose Pond Mountain Boardwalk, 17 March 2008

Serenaded by spring peepers, three Nature Stroller families hiked the familiar trails of Goose Pond Mountain looking for even more signs of spring. Aquatic beetles dove for cover in the first pond as we drew near. Sebastain and Willow built a hideout from sticks and winter-bleached grasses as the moms searched the water.

Kat happened upon a praying mantis egg case of the old-fashioned kind on the pond's edge. This one was made by one of our native mantids, its shape is different than that of the Asian praying mantis that is very common at Goose Pond.



Lorin netted some small, transparent crayfish. Willow was able to determine which ones were male and which ones were female by looking at their swimmerettes, a skill she had recently learned in school.

Heavy-bodied blue herons passed overhead and the peepers song rose and sank in intensity, occasionally detouring into a staccatto as one male peeper defended his territory from an interloper. We left happy to have heard the first amphibian serenede of spring.