Overcast this morning, becoming mostly cloudy later in the day. Winds were fairly calm when I was out and about.
With the mostly gray May we’ve been having, it’s easy to forget that we’re less than a month from summer solstice. I haven’t really been paying that much attention to when it gets dark, so it was a little surprising to have it still be light out at 10pm this evening.
Last night I was reminded by seeing an old blog post it’s getting late in the year to look for frogs at the golf course. They may be at the pond year-round (I’m not sure), but they do seem easier to find in the spring when they are calling.
When I suggested looking for frogs, Rowan was interested, so we headed out there late this morning.
Walking out to the pond, Rowan started hearing the frogs calling occasionally, but for some reason I never heard them. Perhaps it was just the timing of my footsteps or something, because I heard the all the way back to the car on the way out.
It only took Rowan a few minutes to find a frog. As we’ve found in the past, they don’t like to sit still once captured. This makes it a little tricky to get good photos.
Unlike in past years, we kept an eye on the released frog and it didn’t go far.
I was a little surprised when I was able to get it to start croaking a little bit by doing my own very poor imitation.
I had more reliable success when I played a recording of frogs calling on my phone.
This is the first time I’ve directly observed tree frogs calling, and I was impressed at how much his throat expanded like a balloon.
While the first frog was calling, at least three others called in response. A couple were on the far side of the pond, and one was near where Rowan had been looking.
Rowan started looking again, and was able to find a second one, this one more green than brown.
It also didn’t swim too far upon release, but I never saw it actually croaking, so I’m wondering if it was a female.
After we walked away from the pond, the frogs started calling more consistently.
We spent at least an hour there, and in that time, the clouds had started to break up a bit, though it got cloudier again in the afternoon. There was some partial clearing this evening, then overcast again after sunset.
We’re in a low tide sequence. I think it’s the lowest of the year, with tomorrow being the lowest of the sequence. Low tide was about -3ft this morning, but I wasn’t feeling motivated enough to get up and out. I have plans to get out with some other folks tomorrow, though.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
