Treefrog Seasons after Drought

[Frederick W. Schueler]

* sending this around because the Times articles are no longer put up on
their website.

fred.
===============================

Schueler, Fred, 2026. Treefrog Seasons After Drought North Grenville
Times, 30 July 2026 14(29):16. (oil painting by Aleta Karstad)

In February, I naively wrote up Spring Calling (NG Times, 14(8):16) as
if we were expecting a normal spring, uninfluenced by last summer's
severe drought. The first sign that things were different came when we
listened for the onset of Chorus Frog calling for Jeffrey Ethier at the
University of Ottawa, and found that both of the sites of big
populations along Bolton Road were silent, though there was some calling
from nearby wetlands.

After that our observations were just from our at-home protocols:
listening every night for frog & bird calling from home, and
doing-the-streets for on-road activity in Bishops Mills, and except for
Gray Treefrogs there has been a lot of silence

In the early springs of 2012 and 2024 we had heard Spring Peepers
calling on 19 and 27 March, but after this year's long winter we didn't
hear calling from home until 9 April, when there was a single Peeper
peep, and it wasn't until 14 April that there was a "nearly inaudible
small chorus" of Peepers, and then on 17 April “faint distant choruses”
were joined by a single male peeping from our small backyard pond, which
had retained water all last summer. On 22 April the faint Peepers were
joined by a distant Toad, and this pattern of faint distant Toads &
Peepers (with the single Peeper in the backyard pondlet) continued
through May.

On 18 April we had heard a single call by a Gray Treefrog from a tree
between our houses, and then scattered nearby calling until the
Treefrogs headed to their breeding ponds, and we heard a small chorus on
16 May. Treefrogs continued calling in choruses through June until 12
July, only accompanied by individual Toads or Bull Frogs on a few
nights. In most years June & July would have been taken up by Green &
Bull Frogs, with variable numbers of Leopard Frogs earlier, and
sometimes a few nights of Chorus & Wood Frogs in April, but none of
these were heard.

The on-road data are similarly sparse, and while there was a steady
supply of cigarette butts, the only roadkills were Treefrogs on 13 & 20
May, and 20 June, until a single Leopard Frog on Canada Day, and none
since. In years with normal movement there’s a living or road-killed
frog on the roads at least every few days.

In online discussions others have reported various patterns of reduced
frog calling, but the situation in Bishops Mills seems to be more severe
than elsewhere. Treefrogs spend their summers up in trees, and perhaps
it was adaptations against drying that sustained their populations
through the drought. We have previously documented that we hear Chorus
Frogs here more often in wet springs following wet Augusts, and we can
only surmise that last summer's drought crisped the nearby small
wetlands to such an extent that their frog & Toad populations of other
species were wiped out: these habitats likely won't be repopulated until
colonists arrive from more permanent habitats. At least there has been
adequate rain for such a revival this season, and it's only a week or so
until the traditional date for the arrival of juvenile Leopard Frogs
from the breeding marshes along the creeks.

=============================================================

Illustration:
https://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/2011/01/gray-tree-frog-retreat.html


Caption: Gray Tree Frog, Hyla versicolor or Dryophytes versicolor,
resting in a Manitoba Maple stump in Bishops Mills. Oil painting by
Aleta Karstad.
--
------------------------------------------------------------
---------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
------------------------------------------------------------

[rmb...@istar.ca]

I'm rather spoiled here, living by the lake with 4 nearby ponds. Lots
of treefrog calls.

It was another odd springtime, warm, cold, warm, rain, cold, which
"threw off" the woodfrogs, peepers, and chorus frogs. It wasn't until
May that I heard the toads, seemed to be several of them, and when I
paddled down the lake to the beaver dam there were at least 4 or 5 of
them calling on a sunny day, which is unusual. My green frog
population is building back up, judging by the banjo burp calls I hear
during the night when I'm checking the moth lights.

Can't recall if I had posted this pic of the big Mama Toad on this
list, when I go out on the walkway I have to check where she's sitting
so I don't step on her. There have been a couple juvenile and green
frogs out there as well, when Iopen the door now I check to make sure
there isn't one on the doorstep that will hop in. Last week I had one
come hopping in and my mutt puppy promptly pounced on it and chomped
it, and I immediately took it away from her. It looked as though it
were mortally wounded, so I set it aside while I checked the moths. I
came in and uh oh, froggie had hopped off somewhere. Either puppy had
eaten it or it got behind the shelf, I may find the dried up remains
when I pull stuff out for the quarterly vacuum-behind of furniture. I
searched around but couldn't find the frog.

RoseMarie, north of Perth Road Village

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