The Wood Frogs are Back!

Eighteen of our most stalwart and loyal walkers arrived on the trail at Goosepond Mountain State Park at eleven in the morning and discovered that the spring peeper chorus was in full swing. Everyone’s mood became joyous with the combination of warm sunshine and the amphibian heralds of even better weather ahead.

We made our usual stop at the toad pond, this time looking for caddisfly larva but none were evident. We did find several water spiders crossing the surface. Kat brought a snail up from the shallows to show the children.

Olivia (2) shows her mother some moss.

Wood Frogs in Amplexus

As we headed into the homestretch, accompanied by peeper song, we were caught by surprise. Kat’s sensitive ears picked up a competing serenade. The buttonbush swamp had erupted in frog song. Like the peepers (who were ten days early), these wood frogs were singing at least seven days earlier than last year.

Male Wood Frog Calling

Difficult to hear over the din of the spring peepers, the wood frogs’ call sounds like a bunch of ducks quarreling. They have twin sacs behind their front legs that inflate with air as they sound off (see photo above). The kids were thrilled to see the brown, masked wood frogs floating in the water with their hind legs splayed. Wood frogs are communal nesters, so the eggs will probably be found together around the submerged stems of a buttonbush. Since it is early in their breeding season, their masses of jelly-like eggs are probably still low in the water, but they should rise and dimple the surface.

A Honeybee Visits a Skunk Cabbage Flower

Before we left we watched as a blue heron flew directly overhead. Then we were off to the small red maple swamp. Amonette, Acadia, Sybil, Olivia, Lorin, Scarlett and I checked out the skunk cabbage flowers and were delighted to see honey bees nectaring at the blooms. Perhaps they are from the wild honeybee nest in the hollow shagbark hickory. Some of my reading indicates that in colder years, the honeybees use the spathes as warming huts as well as nectar sources.

Sebastian, Nathan, and Anderson spent hours adding to their shelter and playing in the woods.
Willow dropped by to inspect the construction.