Frog and Toad Survey #2

Last night we completed frog and toad survey number two.  As I headed north and west and crossed Trott Brook, I saw a large bird over my car.  The wings beat three times and the bird coasted.  Five wing flaps were completed followed by more coasting.  It wasn't until the bird bent it's tail down to land in a big tree did I recognize it as a bald eagle.  I figured seeing this eagle was a good omen and I was right.  As I stopped to pick up my frogging companions, I was treated to home made peach and blackberry crisp hot out of the oven topped with vanilla ice cream. What a treat! We heard four species of frogs on our route. The gray tree frogs were the loudest but we also heard spring peepers, chorus frogs and American toads.  I thought we would hear pickerel frogs of green frogs because I heard those the weekend before on the Saint Croix river but no luck with those tonight.  The night was loud with the wind blowing, crickets, red winged blackbirds, mallards,  Canadian geese, veery, snipe, sand hill cranes, robins, and common loons.  Fire flies lit up the night. We saw deer and raccoons crossing the road.  The wind kept most of the mosquitoes at bay but might have also kept us from hearing more frogs.  The rain held off for us and we enjoyed the nice evening using our ears in the swamps.