Spring is toying with with our gardening emotions in the Pacific Northwest, flirting with us, offering 70 and 80 degree days.
The chorus frog tadpoles (Pseudacris regilla) are taking advantage of those balmy days by hatching rapidly and entering the aquatic environment of Pear Pond in the Frog Mitigation Area.
They assemble in the warm half inch of water above the shimmering slabs of mica that are propped up in the Pond. Although the mica slabs are only about one square foot in a 30 square foot pond, I can easily count over 100 there, where they are easily visible. Scores more are swimming elsewhere in the more-turbid water.
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. Here we—and you—can note our observations of the world around us. Insects, pretty places, fossils, climate, birds, flowers and more are all worthy additions to a Bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the glorious cycles of life that are unwinding around us.
A light dust coats the Pond’s surface, probably pear tree pollen. Duckweed already covers 25% of the Pond, indicating nutrient-rich water.
Small black spiders skitter across the water’s surface, but wisely do not molest the tadpoles while I watch.
Forty feet to the north, in the “Rectangle” Pond, a foolish juvenile bullfrog seeks a mate and croaks, revealing his location. Like most of us, he makes himself vulnerable for love.
While some of us had our hearts broken by a beauty with too-high standards, that bullfrog risks a heron or coon’s visit and a gorier fate for its heart.
An avenging heron plummeted onto a dinner plate sized bullfrog a few days ago, ridding the Rectangle Pond of a competitor who’d just eaten 3 goldfish.
Perhaps emboldened by the bullfrogs’ thinning ranks, I can hear the chorus frogs calling from the Rectangle Pond’s corners, spreading from their nearby sanctuary in the Frogs’ Mitigation Area.
I eye my yard, wondering where I can let plants grow tall and shaggy and provide frog cover. If I truly will harbor hundreds of tiny frogs, they will need some habitat. In moist buggy areas, each frog needs just a couple of square feet.
Big-winged mosquitos plague my yard, but the chorus frogs favor flying bugs for meals.
I’ll replace the deceased thyme.
Thanks for reading, I’ll reply to comments around noon.
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT? I’m honored, thanks for the reccs and the rescue! <Blush>
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" will be posted every Saturday at 5pm Pacific Time and every Wednesday at 3:30 Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.
Now It's Your Turn
What have you noted in your area or travels? As usual, please post your observations and the general location in your comments.