Maine Big Night # 1

 My first ever Maine Big Night! I know...what was I waiting for all these years?

But, the important thing is I am now involved! Involved in helping with the conservation of migrating amphibians during mating season, that is! Why the rain poncho, you might ask! In order to observe amphibians on the move, it has to be raining, with an outdoor temperature of near or above 45F.

Mrs. Baker, kindergarten teacher extraordinaire!

I joined my friends Billy and Shannon on this adventure. They always come up with grand ideas for adding excitement to life involving nature. You will notice that Shannon is wearing the required reflective vest and headlamp. We also have to have a flashlight as well.

We went almost to the end of the dirt road section of Browns Point Rd., in Bowdoinham, to be near an active vernal pool. We had signed up for this spot figuring it would be a good one with only farmland and a few houses. This is where we will make our observations from now through May 15th, on warm, rainy nights. By the way, a vernal pool is a seasonal pool of water that usually fills with runoff from melting snow in the forest. Areas with forests and other wetlands are also good sites.

Mrs. Baker is looking for frogs and salamanders on the road.

Site locations are 500 feet of road on either side of the vernal pool, so we walked back and forth on the road for about an hour. Our headlamps illuminated the road as we searched for frogs and salamanders who were crossing it to get to their favored wetland to mate and lay their eggs.

We sighted our first Wood Frog at 9:24pm in a light drizzle. Isn't he gorgeous? Look at his coloration. Wood frogs are identified by the dark mask located behind each eye and a white line above the lip. Click this LINK to hear the call of the wood frog, and to learn more about them. And, don't forget the University of Maine Wood Frog Fact Sheet!

The second wood frog sighting was at 9:30pm, and it was lightly raining by that time. I found this wood frog interesting in that it had all of this white debris stuck to its back.

Let's take a closer look. Could they bits plant debris from hopping through the woods?

Our last wood frog sighting was at 9:57pm. Here you see Billy holding the wood frog using powder-free nitrile gloves. Since amphibians often have a nice, slimy coating of mucus on their bodies, we didn't want any hand lotion or other chemicals to be absorbed by their skin.

Billy opened his hands to show me the last wood frog of the night. He is a beauty, but do you see what I see? Let me zoom in for you...

UPDATE: #1 IS JUST A SHADOW AND A PLAY OF THE LIGHT. (No parasites. Yay!) I see something on the upper side of this frog, and I cannot figure out what # 1 might be. # 2 is probably a fir tree needle that has turned brown.

Here is my data sheet from the Big Night.