Final Frog Survey

Last night was our third and final frog and toad survey for this year.  I knew the mosquitoes would be bad so that is why I wore jeans, socks with shoes, and a light colored long sleeved shirt despite the hot and humid weather.  We started out with a festive dinner in Hinckley and then drove to our first stop.  The sun was red from the Canadian wild fires and the countryside stayed lit up long after the sun went down.  At our first stop 14 cars went by so it was hard to hear any frogs.  The veerys and common yellow throats were calling so beautifully and so loudly that I decided I would like to tape the sound for a "going to sleep" sound to hear in bed except I would edit the sound of the mosquitoes out.  By the third stop the mosquitoes came out in droves.  At each subsequent stop the mosquitoes got worse.  When we first drive up to a spot and get out of the car, we see no mosquitoes.  Within 30 seconds a couple blood suckers are buzzing in my ear.  I think they're calling to the other mosquitoes, "Fresh Meat Over Here!"  We have to stay out there for 5 minutes and by the fifth minute I end up putting my head inside my shirt just to get some relief from the ever present noise they make.  Looking at my belly with my head tucked in my shirt gets quite boring.  I think we missed the sound of some frogs because the mosquitoes were so loud.  We ended up hearing tree frogs and green frogs.  We know our five minutes are up when we hear a knocking at the window from inside the car.  We are so happy to hear that knocking and we rush back and get in quickly and shut the door immediately to keep the mosquitoes out.  Despite the pesky bugs we did enjoy ourselves.  The birds sang to us.  The fireflies lit themselves for us.  We heard some frogs but they were quieter than normal.  Maybe it was just too hot and too muggy to think about procreating.