road ecology is the saddest science

[Frederick W. Schueler]

...especially when you can't do any mitigation, and you're familiar with
individual creatures from off-road studies.

This morning, after 3 mm of 04h00 rain, there were 2 shredded juvenile
Leopard Frogs, and one shredded juvenile Green Frog at the south end of
my doing-the-streets transect, and it seem likely these were among those
that were using our little 2 m pond as a water refuge during the
drought, and were just off on a last fatal foraging venture.

The only other DOR Anuran was a medium-size Bull Frog crushed on Main
Street - there haven't been any Bull Frogs at the pond, but you can
stand by for an account of yesterday's walk up to auditory Station 2,
and the slaughter of Bull Frogs seen along the way.

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 25 Sept 2025 10:39 AM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> This morning, after 3 mm of 04h00 rain, there were 2 shredded juvenile
> Leopard Frogs, and one shredded juvenile Green Frog at the south end of
> my doing-the-streets transect, and it seem likely these were among those
> that were using our little 2 m pond as a water refuge during the
> drought, and were just off on a last fatal foraging venture.

* since then, with a couple of minor bursts of rain, we've had more
juvenile Leopard Frogs around the village, and a couple of nights when
there were 10 on the doing-the-streets transect, which is a count we
haven't had since 2011.

There have also been a lot of Bull Frogs, including a huge (140mm SVL)
road-killed female last night which had a Blarina Shrew in her stomach.
There are relatively few Green Frogs, in contrast to last summer when
Greens were super abundant, but I haven't found any frogs in the
stomachs of the road-killed Bulls.

In previous drought years it has seemed that the Leopards hang around
later in the fall, presumably to compensate for reduced summer growth,
so it will be interesting to see if they're still in the transect area
in November this year.

[rmb...@istar.ca]

I have seen more leopard frogs hopping about, including this nice
robust-looking mature fellow that likes to sit in my flowerpot on the
patio. There have been a number of green frogs hopping along the
front door walkway just after those rains, have to watch out for them
when I check the moth lights at the window. One very one leapt in the
door one night recently and led me on a merry chase until it cornered.

It is nice to see the green frogs recovering, I've mentioned before
one summer a few years back all the green frogs disappeared. They're
nowhere back to historical numbers but at least there are more and
more hopping around.

As I'm typing this I just felt something tickling on my arm, it was a
blacklegged tick. I used the blunt end of a Bic pen to dispatch it.
I'm just taking a break here from having cut a load of firewood, it's
that time of year to keep an eye for ticks.

I'll also attach a photo of the gray ratsnake I found in my bedroom
Tuesday morning. Yes, you read right, in my bedroom. I nearly
stepped on it. I don't know how it got into the house, could be the
same pathway the mice use. At any rate it startled me. At least I
could easy throw a towel on it and grab it before it wiggled its way
under some furniture.

Rose-Marie, just north of Perth Road Village

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