Ok, so yesterday morning's post started out pretty bleak. I was having a tough time dealing with the fact that logging has destroyed much of the wood frogs' habitat near our house. But, I didn't give up on those little guys.
Yesterday afternoon was a warm 61 degrees here- perfect wood frog weather. I grabbed my backpack with my camera, water, and notebook and headed out to the frog pond.
I rushed past the cleared parts straight to the pond. Upon arrival, I saw a little movement near the water's edge. As I crept closer, a tadpole (or as I prefer to call them... a polliwog) darted away. (It was probably a bullfrog because it was BIG!) I sat down to wait and watch. Little by little, my ears picked up on a faint clucking sound on the other side of the pond. I know that sound! I tramped through the brush to the other side.
Along the way, more evidence of life continued to present itself:
I crossed an old stone wall- evidence that the area was once open fields.
As I got nearer to the pond's edge, the clicking sounds grew louder. Then, as I emerged on the bank, it stopped. They knew I was there. I watched them scatter toward the area I had just left.
I worked my way over to a tree that had fallen into the water. I walked out onto it and just sat. And sat. And sat. And then they went back to business as usual and revealed themselves.
(It was really windy yesterday , so I wasn't able to capture any good video with sound. But my first ever blog post has terrific sound. I hope you'll hop over and listen to The Big Day).
As if I weren't happy enough already, a bat (yes... A BAT!) swooped down low to the water, skimmed the surface and flapped back up. It came through, back-and-forth several times in the erratic way that bats fly. I tried to get a photo, but bats are just too erratic to get a good shot. Here's my best photographic evidence:
Yesterday afternoon was a warm 61 degrees here- perfect wood frog weather. I grabbed my backpack with my camera, water, and notebook and headed out to the frog pond.
I rushed past the cleared parts straight to the pond. Upon arrival, I saw a little movement near the water's edge. As I crept closer, a tadpole (or as I prefer to call them... a polliwog) darted away. (It was probably a bullfrog because it was BIG!) I sat down to wait and watch. Little by little, my ears picked up on a faint clucking sound on the other side of the pond. I know that sound! I tramped through the brush to the other side.
Along the way, more evidence of life continued to present itself:
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| Squirrels' midden |
 |
| Deer droppings |
 |
| That fungi we call turkey mushrooms because they look like turkey tail feathers. |
As I got nearer to the pond's edge, the clicking sounds grew louder. Then, as I emerged on the bank, it stopped. They knew I was there. I watched them scatter toward the area I had just left.
I worked my way over to a tree that had fallen into the water. I walked out onto it and just sat. And sat. And sat. And then they went back to business as usual and revealed themselves.
You can see it, right? In the top middle? Seriously... a bat at 1:00 in the afternoon-just out getting some lunch!
So, while the lessons I received from nature on Wednesday were subtle, yesterday's was a big exclamation point: nature will continue!
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