Wood Frogs!

Listening and looking for wood frogs

We discovered a huge cluster of spawn at the end of this stick.

Three woodfrogs well hidden among the floating leaves.

While we spend a fair amount of time in the woods and by the river, I try to set aside one day a week for a longer visit... time to explore, discover, wander, contemplate. As we were walking one of our favorite trails,  we stopped short. "Listen, Mama!!" .... We crept slowly off trail towards a large vernal pond, and what sounded like a flock of ducks.  The pond was boiling with mating wood frog. Such an amazing sight to witness, and mesmerizing to sit and listen to. We spent the better part of an hour, quietly doing both.  After all of that sitting and holding so still and quiet, some rock scrambling and bouldering was in order! Back at home, little more than a suggestion was needed to inspire work in her nature journal.  Sadly, there was a serious drop in temps the next night, and the eggs we'd found had frozen and broken. We have a project on tap to help look a bit closer and see if any survived.  Looking forward to visiting the vernal ponds again, soon (after the SNOW stops falling!)