Why Did The Newt Cross the Road?

I learned how to photograph frogs on August 29, 2012, the day I took this picture of a green frog at Bennett Pond in Apple Valley.  By spotting him first from afar and sneaking up on him, I was able to have him pose from 5 feet away.  (Photo by Don Comis)

In two nights, April 2 in Logan County and April 3 in Crawford County, Jim McCormac watched and photographed the following amphibians cross forest floor or paved roads to get to vernal pools to breed:  spotted salamander, smallmouth salamander, red eft larval stage of a red-spotted newt, green frog, northern leopard frog, western chorus frog, and spring peepers.

I went to "my" vernal pool at the Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon College tonight, April 7, 2014, and on April 3, and encountered no sign of amphibians.  Except for the frog I heard call near me tonight.

Of the amphibians he photographed, I have only seen--and photographed--the green frog and the northern leopard frog.  But I did that in daytime, late in the summer, post-breeding.  Of course I've heard many spring peepers, including tonight, but none around the vernal pool I've been stalking.

I wasn't going to the vernal pool tonight until I read Jim's April 6 report on his blog.

The bottomline for me is:  Do amphibians still use the vernal pool at the Brown Center?  Last year, I was sure I saw eggs there.  So, I'll keep coming back whenever the ground is wet from rain.

Hope for Salamander Migration Soon

One of the first salamanders I've captured and learned to photograph as they "escape" the container I place them in.  I photographed this northern red on July 28, 2013, along Little Jelloway Creek near Apple Valley.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Probably the first frog I've photographed successfully.  This northern leopard frog was quite a ham, once I learned I couldn't use the salamander release trick to photograph him or her.  He would just jump out of sight when the container was opened.  So I just followed him along the banks of the Kokosing River in Millwood, Ohio, until he "froze",  hoping I wouldn't see him.  (Photographed on August 7, 2013 by Don Comis)

Jim McCormac's blog last night gave me hope that I still have a shot at seeing the mass migration of salamanders to vernal pools where they mate and lay eggs.  He confirms that this tough winter has delayed the mass migration, while individual salamanders and frogs have made the trip.

But the mass migration triggered by the combination of night, rain, and warm temperatures hasn't happened yet.  He believes it will happen in a week or two.  Right now, I'm guessing Thursday or Friday, based on weather forecasts.

In taking a back route the other day to a pond near my house to photograph a flock of redhead ducks, canvasbacks, and scaups, I found a mini-pond near wet woodland near the big pond.  This mini-pond is much bigger than the vernal pool I'm looking at in Gambier, Ohio.  Last year, I dismissed it when it looked only like a drainage gully.  The major snows of this winter must have swelled this vernal pool, if that's what it is.

I can confirm it by asking questions of the neighbors of the pool or by checking for eggs or waiting to see if it dries up in late summer as vernal pools do.   If it turns out to be one, it would be the first vernal pool I found on m own.  And it will be in my neighborhood, which I wished for.

This was the best I could do as I hid from this skittish flock of redheads, canvasbacks, and scaups on a recent evening.  The possible vernal pool in my neighborhood is near this full-sized pond.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Two Really Big Shows in March in Ohio

Illustration of woodcock's "Sky Dance" from Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac".

Soon, I hope to visit this vernal pool often, hoping to see migrations of spotted salamanders and other amphibians to the pool from their hibernation areas underground.  They like to lay their eggs in these temporary pools because there aren't fish in them.  This pool is a depression near the Kokosing River that collects snowmelt runoff, helping to prevent flooding of the Kokosing.  (Photographed April 6, 2013, after the migration

After about 45 years, I still remember certain passages from Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac".  One of them is his description of the "Sky Dance" of male woodcocks during mating season, which is April in his native Wisconsin and March in Ohio.

So I was excited to find out last spring that there are woodcocks at the Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon College.  I had never seen a woodcock and still haven't, because I forgot they dance in March.  This year I'm remembering.

March also brings the spring migration of spotted salamanders and frogs and other amphibians from their underground hibernation spots to the nearest vernal pool.  I heard this occurs when the first rains of spring falls on a warm morning.   I knew the vernal pond it occurred at on the U.S. Department of Agriculture farm in Maryland where I used to work, and I know a vernal pool at the Brown Center,  but I've never seen that event either, in either state.

I remembered last spring in Ohio but I didn't know that  "warm" can mean about 40 degrees, I thought it meant about 50 degrees.  And I didn't know it might happen in the evening rather than at daybreak.

So I dream of walking through the Brown Center every evening or morning in March.   I know I'll at least make it once a week, starting with March 1 when the Center has its monthly Family Adventure Day, which I always attend anyway!