Species Lunation 4 – Wood Frog

Once again I had pretty perfect timing, as the wood frogs started their strange and hilarious quacking chorus just a couple days after the lunar month began, almost exactly the same time as last year. For a few days they were on their own out there, but were soon joined by the little chirps of the spring peepers. We had a lot of rain at that time, and as per usual my whole front yard flooded (joys of living swamp-adjacent!), which meant that at night I was pretty much surrounded by frogs on all sides. (It was so loud. I could hear it even with the windows closed and music playing.)

I am fortunate in that the runoff ditch that runs alongside my property (pictured in the video clip above) functions as a vernal pool, so that’s where most of them are. Frustratingly, it was very hard to sneak up on them to catch a glimpse – the minute I would get close, they’d all dive down into the water. But, one night I snuck out there with a flashlight and managed to catch them in flagrante delicto. They froze like deer in headlights and stared up at me, the smaller males atop the larger females – it was quite funny.

During the week or so of frog quacking, I thought a lot about the Aristophanes play, and the frog chorus who declare their singing a hymn to Dionysos, whose sanctuary lay in the marshes. Brekekekex koax koax.

I also resonated strongly with the frogs as the ultimate sign of spring – these amazing little creatures can FREEZE SOLID for days during the winter, and spend the whole time hidden away in their hibernacula (my new favorite word) under the dirt or leaf litter, in a state of suspended animation, and then the minute that spring hits BAM they are out looking for pools in which to furiously mate before absconding to the woods and swamps to live out the summer peacefully. Before flowers push up from the soil, before there are leaves on the trees, there are the frogs. It’s a welcome sound after a long, challenging winter. No wonder the Abenaki called April the Frog Moon. They truly are one of the most prominent presences at this time of year.

About a week ago I decided to check and see if any of the clusters of frog eggs in the ditch had started to hatch, and indeed there were plenty of tiny black tadpoles. So I scooped up a few, made a little habitat in a plastic tub which I set out on the porch, and am watching them grow and change day to day while feeding them bits of salad. It’s been pretty fascinating. Hopefully at least one will survive to become an adult frog, we’ll see.

(As a side note, when I was looking up information on how to do this properly, all the websites were geared towards it being an activity for children. Why do we assume that only kids want to observe nature and learn about animals like this? It’s sad. This seems far more interesting and worthwhile a pursuit than…whatever most adults occupy their minds with.)

Anyway, of course I made my customary page for the species, which will now be displayed while I move on to my next subject. Though this time I have the actual living frogs as a reminder too.

~ by Dver on May 9, 2024.