Herping - Or Frog And Toad Survey #3

American Toad

Saturday was the final frog and toad survey for the year.  By now some of the late season frogs and toad should be singing their mating songs.  We met some friends from St. Cloud in Milaca for dinner before the route.  They wanted to join the frog and toad survey.  They told us that listening for frogs was called herping.  Herping.  That doesn't sound too good; a cross between herpes and burping.  The sky was clear and the temperature was betwen 60 and 65 - about 20 degrees cooler than when we did the same route last month.  We heard gray tree frogs calling at the first several stops.  I was getting worried that this would be a one species night.  Eventually we heard some American toads and one of my favorites, the green frog (who sounds like a loose banjo string). A big bird flew over our van at one point and landed in a dead tree off to the side of the road.  It looked like an owl more than a hawk although all we could see was the outline.  So I got out of the car and made barred owl sounds at it.  I called 3 times.  The bird looked at me but did not respond.  I got back into the car and we looked again with binoculars.  It's hard to see at night with binoculars but I could see the ear tufts of a great horned owl. We admired the owl and moved on. We went past the Royal Flush kennels (our heroes who pulled us out of the frost boil).  At each stop we get out of the car and listen for frogs. We have ten stops.  When we first get out of the car, the mosquitoes are not so bad. There are maybe a few flying around.  After a minute or two the mosquitoes come at us in squadrons.  There must be a silent horn sounding the call, "Fresh meat here!"  They land on your fingers and their wings brush your lips.  If you inhale suddenly,  mosquitoes get sucked in down your throat.  By the time our five minutes are up, we can't hear anything above the very irritating whine of mosquitoes in your ears. At the 4th stop, I heard a veery (a thrush with a strange, flute like sound).  At the fifth stop I heard several veerys calling.  We paused at the spot on the road where we were stuck in a frost boil in May.  The scar was still evident on the road. We heard snipe winnowing at 7 of the 10 stops.  They sound kinda creepy after a while and my mind starts to think about swamp monsters again.  At one of the later stops the four of us were standing separately on the road around the van listening for frogs.  We had stood there almost the entire five minutes when suddenly something moved in the woods ahead of us.  About 10 feet into the brush, some animal got up and went crashing away making a huge racket.  I suppose the animal couldn't take having four people stand there so close anymore but it scared the living daylights out of me. All four of us silently moved together next to the van.  Safety in crowds I guess. The lightening bugs started to come out. At the final stop there were so many lightening bugs the woods looked like a Christmas scene with tiny white bulbs.  My friend said only the male lightening bugs produce light and they do it to attract a mate.  That is the same reason the frogs call and the snipe winnow.  The swamps and woods are a very sexy place.  Our heads were tilted up to the sky to admire the lightening bugs and that is when we saw a falling star.  We finished our route and headed back to civilization on tar roads. As we laughed and talked, I thought I saw a light pulsing in the sky. Was I getting a migraine?  Would a seizure come on?  Was this the end of the world?  After a few minutes, I had to ask, "Does anyone else see a pulsing light in the sky?"  One passenger said, "Yes."  THANK YOU!  The other two passengers didn't see it.  The pulsing light was getting brighter and brighter.  If a car approached us, the light disappeared temporarily only to return once the car had passed.  The road went around a bend and the light moved to the left of the car.  Thank goodness because this meant the light was coming from a location.  We're only guessing but we suspect there was a light show at the Hinkley casino.  This concludes the official and documented herping for the 2011 season.