Frog and Toad Survey #1

Last night a sibling and an offspring and I did the first of the three frog and toad surveys.  This is a volunteer position. We listen for frogs and toads at ten spots on a designated route in rural Kannebec County, collect data, and turn it into the Department of Natural Resources.  This is our third year on the same route.  Everything went pretty well. We didn't get lost.  We didn't get stuck in the mud.  And we heard lots of frogs.  We heard chorus frogs, wood frogs, and spring peepers.  We heard great horned owls and barred owls.  I try to talk in my best barred owl dialect but I think the owls can tell I am a imposter. We heard what we think was a couple of unknown birds.  One sounded like an electronic cartoon road runner.  Whatever that bird was, it was close to us at two frog spots.  Some other bird had a prettier and longer song.  At our stop by White Lily lake, we heard splashing.  The first time I heard it I joked about a mermaid.  By the fourth time I heard splashing very near to us I began to get a little freaked out.  Normally I am not a fearful or nervous person but it is a little scary being out on a deserted road at night, in the dark, standing outside for five minutes at a time listening to the night noises.  I am glad I am not alone.  And we were happy to hear the wood frogs making their mating noises because they only do that 2 weeks of the year.  Fifty weeks of silence followed by two weeks of "keck a hecking."  At the last stop we heard quite a few chorus frogs, a couple peepers and maybe one wood frog.  As time passed, the wood frogs got louder and sounded closer. The wood frogs are getting so loud we can't even hear the chorus frogs or spring peepers anymore.  Maybe the wood frogs were startled when we got out of the car and as they got used to us, started to talk more.  A minute went by.  More wood frogs are talking.  Wood frogs are screaming at us.  One of them sounds so close it's like he's under the car.  Comments are made.  "They're getting closer."  "So many."  "Sounds like an army of frogs."  "Legions!"  "They're carrying tiny swords."  Crowd mentality sets in on the three of us humans.  It's late. We're tired.  We've been up for 18 hours now.  Rational thoughts are pushed aside by panic.  We stand defenseless in total darkness and not a house in sight.  We're pushing up the fear factor with inflammatory words. For me, the word "legions" was the most terrifying.  Offspring #2 says our five minutes are up and we dash to the car in terror.  Natural resources be dammed!  We no longer care about amphibians.  We want to get in the car and get it started before we're attacked.  As I push in the clutch I say, "I shall smite you with my black radials!"  Once the wheels start turning, the fear subsides like water drains out of a sink.  We never even saw a frog.  What were we worried about?

Spring

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Soil

Today my plans changed at the last minute and I found myself with an extra hour of daylight free of obligations.  I could do anything I wanted during this hour.  I chose to spend my hour in the garden.  I saw that my Bing cherry bushes were almost in full bloom.  The chives were long enough to harvest.  The rhubarb was up a couple inches.  Irises are up.  Dandelions are forming flower buds.  The garlic was six inches tall already.  I dug in the compost and fluffed it up.  I like the smell of cooking compost.  Well, I don't like it - like it.  I wouldn't wear it as a body spray.  I just like the smell because when the compost smells I know the materials are being broken down into something I can use.  Sometimes the materials produce a little smoke.  I dug up 1/6 of the garden pulling earthworms reluctantly out of the soil.  I didn't see any cutworms yet.  I allowed Meredith to follow me.  She enjoys pecking in the compost and digging in the dirt.  She loves to take dirt baths.  She lays in the dirt and kicks at it with her feet.  She digs a hole and she throws the dirt up and over herself.  She has dug holes 12 inches deep.  When she is well covered with the sandy soil, she shakes her feathers like a dog shakes when it climbs out of a lake. Dirt flies in all directions.  She lays her feathers flat again and starts preening them with her beak.  She looks very satisfied with herself when the dust bath is over. And that is why, if you come over, there are holes next to the foundation almost all the way around the house.  It's Meredith's fault.

It's a Bust

I tapped my two maple trees several weeks ago. This year is not a good year for making syrup.  I'm glad my income or family sweets depended on the maple syrup I make each year because this year was a bust.  Although some sap runs when we have warm springs like this one, not much.  I had gathered almost a gallon of sap before I left for Nebraska.  By the time I returned, the buds had sprouted on the tree so I had to throw all that sap away.  This past weekend I thought I would boil my gallon of sap and maybe get a cup of syrup or maybe a half a cup.  As I poured the first jug of sap into the kettle, I noticed the liquid was cloudy and viscous.  When I added the second jug of sap it was clear and thin.  The thick and cloudy sap worried me so I threw the entire batch down the drain.  I didn't want to risk using tree sap that had spoiled.  I'll try it again next year.

Listening Skills

A sibling and I are volunteering for the third year to do a frog and toad survey route.  We got an email from the Minnesota DNR to run our route as soon as possible because the warm spring (or absense of spring) has influenced the frogs into singing early.  This means I had to set other things aside and study frog love songs.  My study paid off and today I passed the audio frog identification test.  I can tell you that chorus frogs sound like a finger running past the teeth on a comb, a green frog sounds like a loose banjo string being plucked (also like Raffi in  his song Three Green and Speckled Frogs Sat On a Speckled Log Eating the Most Delicious Bugs), a bull frog sounds like rum-rum  rum-rum, a leopard frog sounds like a long, slow snore followed by chuckle chuckle chuckle chuckle, a cricket frog sounds like someone shaking a handful of marbles, a mink frog sounds like horses hooves on cobblestones, a spring peeper sounds like baby chicks peeping, and a pickeral frog sounds like a long, slow snore without any chuckles.  We plan to do the route Friday night.  Frogs=cute.  Check out this picture of Kermit.  Can you look at that picture and not smile?  Look into his soulful eyes.  Kermit; he's just jim dandy.

Project Feederwatch Update

Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy woodpecker-2, Downy Woodpecker-2, Crow-1, Robin-4, Black Capped Chickadee-5, Goldfinch-3, House Finch-1, White Breasted Nuthatch-2,

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