This is a thing I'm going to be doing over the next few weeks: volunteering to wade out into local ponds in search of frog and salamander egg masses.
Yes, in the dead of winter. That's when the eggs are freshly laid and most easily observable. Think of it as an extended polar plunge.
We had an orientation for this mad idea on Saturday. Some 80 hardy souls turned up, willing to do this, for reasons probably ranging from school credit to scouting for new duck hunting sites. The crowd was a mix of eager college students, bird-watchers, granolas, moss-beards, and a sprinkling of sportsmen. (My favorite was a lady with an American Forestry Association hoodie that said "You Hug 'Em, We Cut 'Em!")
Where I fit in on this spectrum would be ... well, I'm out of school by a decade, but otherwise all of the above. My motivation? Well, I like being in the water for any reason or no reason at any time of year; not coincidentally I tend to think of frogs as my "power animal;" I'm looking for good things to do with my time and it wouldn't, uh, hurt to find some new duck hunting sites...
The primary focus of our egg-bothering will be the Northwestern Salamander (ambystoma gracile) and the Northern Red-Legged Frog (rana aurora aurora). I was pleasantly surprised to run across a pond devoted to the breeding of the latter while walking around Oaks Bottom later on Saturday:
Pond:
Looks inviting, right?
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