Saturday, June 24, 2023

Frogs

Today is all about frogs.   Where have they all gone?

I used to be bothered by Spring Peepers.  I live across a street from a wetlands area and the Spring was filled with their calls.  That was OK.  They were so collectively constant, it was just background noise.  But I have a small 5' pond just outside the bedroom window.

And they would individually croak, which drove me nuts at night!  I have acoustic ceiling tiles in the bedroom window to dampen the noise.  But last year, I realized I wasn't hearing any frogs.  They are all gone.  A whole swamp of them vanished!

I am baffled.  My neighbor who's yard borders the swamp, doesn't know why they vanished either.  Ive read about frog-diseases wiping them out sort of like beehive diseases and parasites.  Or it is climate change.  Or pollution.  

I still have regular green frogs (Leopards?). in my pond.  They don't bother me.  I've even grown some.

Fed them and put a log in the tub so they could climb out.  If we are losing some, I want to help the others...

Marley and Lori sometimes catch one.  But for everyone they catch and play with, 19 probably survive.  Between the pond and the creek-like drainage easement and the swamp, they have lots of good places to exist.

But I think we are "extincting" too many small ignored animals...

3 comments:

Megan said...

Hmmm - it's worrying.

Megan
Sydney, Australia

pilch92 said...

That is sad. You don't have any snapping turtles around, do you? Or snakes?

Katie Isabella said...

My middle boy over the mountains had a terrible drainage problem in his lawn by the drive way. A stream lived there and a zillion little tadpoles...

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