Great Night For Frogging

A pickerel frog.

Last night was a great night for frogging.  I was worried about potential rain but I'm glad I didn't cancel.  The rain held off, for the most part, until after frogging was complete.  We had dinner at the Crow's Nest north of Mora and got started well after dark.  There was no moon and the sky was cloudy so it was pretty dark out there.  We heard more wood frogs croaking than I have ever heard before.  The wood frogs were croaking so loud it sounded like they were shouting at us.  I feel lucky to hear a wood frog because they only call 2 out of the 52 weeks in a year.  But after the tenth stop where we heard a full, never ending chorus of overlapping wood frogs calling "keck-a-heck, keck-a-heck, keck-a-heck!) I was hearing them for hours after we left the swamp.  I heard them in my sleep.  The wood frogs were so loud we had to strain to hear the spring peepers and the chorus frogs.  At three stops were were delighted to hear the slow snore of a pickerel frog.  I had never heard one in the wild before.  I don't believe I've ever seen one but maybe I have because they look much like a leopard frog.  A pickerel frog has rounded spots on the ridges along it's back while the leopard frog has rectangular spots.  The pickerel frog and the leopard frog both have a long, slow snoring sound but the leopard frog follows it up with a chuckle and the pickerel frog doesn't chuckle.  Also on our route we heard a pair of barred owls calling to each other from a long distance away.  There was wildlife on the road as well.  We dodged a pheasant, slowed down to keep far enough back from a waddling skunk, slowed down for a pair of deer, and nicked a dead raccoon laying in the middle of the road.  If I had to hit one of those animals I was glad to just touch the dead one.  Last night was a good night to be outdoors focusing in my hearing.