Try Again-Frog and Toad Survey Number Two

I'm back and I didn't have to call 911 last night so all is good.  We started our second frog and toad survey (volunteering for the Department of Natural Resources) about 9:15 Friday night.  The 80 degree temperatures felt great.  A light breeze blew the clouds out of the sky revealing a tiny sliver of moon that soon disappeared. Offspring #2 came along to help us keep track of the 5 minute listening sessions.  She knocked on the window when the five minutes were up.  We heard gray tree frogs (photo), American toads, and a few spring peepers.  Last year at this time we heard green frogs.  I like the sound of green frogs (they sound like a loose banjo string being plucked).  I was a little disappointed that we didn't hear any this year.  We might have come by a little too late in the green frog mating season.  We heard snipe winnowing at several stops.  At one of the last stops we heard a barred owl calling.  The owl called four times and seemed to be making a wide curve around us.  After the fourth call I answered in my best barred owl voice.  When a barred owl calls it sounds like "No soup for you.  No soup for you all."  After I made my owl imitation the owl responded with a single hoot.  I definitely heard a note of disapproval in that single hoot.  Still, the owl talked back to me.  It was better than being ignored.  We came upon a couple vulnerable animals in the road.  At a house where we once saw a dog doing it's business (now known as dog poop house) we stopped because I thought I saw a huge rock in the road.  The rock turned out to be a Holland lop rabbit and it just sat in the middle of the road we as turned the car to go around it.  This rabbit was the exact same tan color as the gravel.  Later I saw a painted turtle stopped in the middle of the road and I drove around that too.  I was a little nervous about the road.  After getting trapped in a frost boil last time and with all the recent rain, I wanted to avoid any trouble.  Earlier that day I called the Kannebec County Highway Department and asked about the condition on Teal Road.  I was put on hold for a minute and then told that all restrictions were now off and as far as they knew the road was fine.  I emailed our rescuer from the frost boil incident but never heard back from him.  We made our way cautiously.  I told myself to turn around if the road got dangerously soft and not to forge ahead like last time.  We saw vestiges of former frost boils and the scars of deep ruts but the road was solid.  We paused where we got stuck last time.  We found the exact spot where we spent a half hour on the telephone in the dark.  I felt really good to get past that spot and to move forward. We wrapped up the survey before 11 p.m. and got home before 1 a.m.  I'm looking forward to the third and final frog survey of the season which will be around the 4th of July.