Frogs & Toads

This glorious, sunny, brilliant blue sky weather has given us ample opportunities to fling open doors and crank open windows, letting in the wonderful fresh air as well as all the wonderful sounds of nature around us. I could just sit forever, inside by an open window or outside in the sunshine, listening to all the different birds- the geese, the woodpeckers and all the different chirping and the cheeping birds, mixed together with all the sounds from the pond- the toad mating calls and the spring peepers. I absolutely love it!!

We spent all morning by the pond, searching out the noisy amphibians and boy, did we find them!

We found lots of them mating, holding on to each other for dear life, lots of different eggs of various color and shape, lots of HUGE frogs and lots of little smaller hoppity ones.

I nearly stepped on a few (and might have without knowing!) as two were sitting right on the path around the pond, mating, and two were hidden beneath a clump of grass, mating. I am glad I saw, in each instance, at the last moment, a little flash of red/orange, and stepped somewhere else instead.

While Johnny was scared to death every time one jumped, convinced it was going to bite him, Natty and Francie set out catching them, collecting them, holding them and then releasing them. They found that keeping toads or frogs as pets isn't really so fun but keeping some eggs just might be. We found masses of egg strands in the front field, in a puddle, by the pond and they set up an aquarium to hold some of them. We'll see what comes out of those!

Mating time!!

The picture below shows the egg strands- crazy amounts! And, check out the mating ones at the top!! (if you click on the picture, it will get bigger)

Francie out in her spring dress...you can dress that girl up (kind of) but take her out? Nope, she was into the creek and into the mud and full of frog fingers in no time. Ha! Below her is one of the white egg sacks we found. Not sure what will come out of those, anyone know??

Natty can catch a frog or a toad in no time. Amazes me every time!!