Frog & Toad Route #2

Last night 3 of us embarked on this volunteer survey of hopping reptiles.  I was a little worried this trip would not have good karma.  On Highway 169, before I reached Zimmerman, an adventurous snapping turtle was heading east.  This turtle had already crossed the south bound lanes and was on the final lane of the northbound lanes when a pick up truck went over it.  The turtle survived.  The next car, a yellow Honda Fit built closer to the ground, less than turtle height to be exact, hit that turtle with an unforgettable sound and surely much physical damage.  What evasive measures can one take at 67 miles per hour? Sorry snapping turtle.  So sorry.  We arrived at the first stop of our route around sunset.  The wind was absent. The sky was mostly clear.  The long rays of the sun painted the cotton ball clouds in pink, purple and grey.  No painter could do justice to this sky on this night.  On our route the gray tree frogs were screaming.  Wow, so loud. So loud a person could not sleep.  Next most common reptile were the American toads with their long, musical trill.  Some spring peepers were still peeping.  The temperature of the water was around 70 degrees but the peepers kept at it. Green frogs, with their classical loose banjo string sound, were heard when the stop had deeper water.  We had 10 stops and heard green frogs at three of them.  At one stop we heard our fifth species, the mink frog. On top of that we had a display of fireflies, the sighting on an owl swooping down on it's prey, many deer sighting (glad they were only sightings.  I'd rather hit a snapper than a deer), the sound of veery calling, the sound of feathers going through a snipe tail, and, best of all, the sky dance of the woodcock.  Wow.  What a night.  Yeah, there were geese and red wing blackbirds and coyotes too.  At stop #8 we heard the woodcock peenting.  I, in my enthusiasm of nature, proceeded to do an interpretive dance of the walk of a woodcock.  My sister imitated a semipalmated plover.  The third person (who is historically lacking in enthusiasm), says, "Stop. Stop right now." Aw, shucks. We were just about to demonstrate the sand hill crane dance.  We stopped.  No means no.  The moon is about half full but almost bright enough to document our results without a head lamp. The mosquitoes were there but not that bad. What a beautiful night!