treefrogging

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

Yesterday afternoon, as I was checking some sites in Limerick Forest, I
heard Treefrogs calling from one of the major Wood Frog breeding pools -
https://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/2010/04/wood-frog-breeding-pond-air.html
- and last night from home there were Treefrogs calling, with Toads,
from the distant SW, so late spring - as defined by Treefrog calling -
has arrived, just a few days after the last frost.

The only Peeper I heard from home last night was the single one from our
little backyard pool, which had water all last summer. The night before
there had been a faint chorus from the north - somewhere up along the
creek - but this has been the least calling by Peepers we've ever heard,
suggesting that those in nearer-by wetlands were eliminated by last
summer's drought.

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
------------------------------------------------------------

[rmb...@istar.ca]

It was finally warm enough to run the moth light last night, only put
on the one by the doorway window as it was too windy for the one on
the balcony. Got about 15 species, including a zale, one of my
favourites.

Anyway, I was out at 3:00 a.m. to check what was showing up, and I
heard 3 toads down by the waterfront. There were only 2 peepers
competing down at the "frog pond". 'Twas cloudy and foggy, couldn't
even see the Eye of Sauron (my name for the big red light on the
Rogers tower south of us, it's the only "human" element that I can
see. Irritates me that my wilderness view has been spoiled by that
one blinking light.) There were midges and some mayflies all over the
siding, I need to find a way to capture those delicate creatures and
get them into a container and cool them off to point the macro lens at
them to pinpoint the species.

A nice day out there, I must prepare to paddle the canoe down the lake
to do battle with the beavers, rip the dam open, we're getting flooded
at this end. I'll take a couple bird houses to put on the dead cedars
down there for the swallows, I hope I'm still in time for them to use
the boxes.

Rose-Marie

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[rmb...@istar.ca]

....and so it was a gorgeous day to be out on the lake! It's a chore
ripping open those dams but at least there's no cold breeze and I
didn't need a jacket. A handful of persistent blackflies were
buzzing around my head, and one bit me on the hand. I told a couple
of dragonflies that were cruising "Get over here!"

Surprisingly I saw only one painted turtle, a day like today I would
have expected seeing a couple dozen of them. There were 5 active
heron nests last time I was down a couple weeks ago, but today I
didn't see any adults patrolling overhead, and no little beaks peeking
over the edge, so that doesn't look good. I took 2 bird boxes down
and affixed them to large dead cedar trees for the swallows. I may be
a bit too late but you never know. Nest holes are at a premium in the
swamp. One pair of kingbirds was chattering, I should take a nest
ledge down there for them.

I almost caught a large catfish. I had put a 4 inch length of drain
pipe in the dam, which the beavers have dragged out of position yet
again. I saw a big tail sticking out of the end of it above the dam,
and I tried to flip it up and over but that fish gave a mighty swish
and took off. I should have made it go further up the pipe with the
hoe.

The bass are starting to nest, saw about 5 of them hovering over their
nests. The pines must be blooming, there's a lot of pollen in the
water.

Okay, time to have some lunch and then go see what the laneway beavers
have been up to. No doubt repairing the damage I wrought on their dam
yesterday. I may just take the camera and indulge in some prowling
about in that area.

Rose-Marie, in the wilds just north of Perth Road Village

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 5/17/2026 1:52 PM, rmb...@istar.ca wrote:

> I saw only one painted turtle, a day like today I would have expected seeing a couple dozen of them.

* on the way between Brockville and Kemptville yesterday we saw our
first on-road reptiles of the spring: a 70 cm Water Snake smashed in the
Long Swamp north of Rows Corners, a big Blanding's Turtle helped across
the road at the Long Swamp Fen north of there, and a smallish Painted
Turtle which had made it across the road south of Oxford Mills, and
disappeared into the grass in a direction away from any water known to us.

In other taxa, a Bull Frog and a Porcupine, both smashed in midroad.
We've seen relatively little on-road activity this spring, but perhaps
the 24°C is kick-starting the activity the single-digit temperatures had
suppressed.

[Paul Sharpe]

Thank you for these observations, Fred.

We have friends who live at 454 Haskins Road, who we walk with in the woods south of their lot.

In previous years they would see many tadpoles and hear several frogs in pools along a pathway leading to the forest.

Since new owners of the forest built the path up about a foot for reliable vehicle access, the pools do not form to the same extent and the number of frogs we hear in spring is much reduced.

My wife, Helen MacGregor and I live at 2775 Concession Road, a block east of the funeral home in Kemptville.  For several years after our 1994 arrival, we would see many leopard frogs in the vacant field of about 3 acres across Concession Road to the south.  Several frogs of three different species and some toads would be caught in the filter of our swimming pool.  In 2025 we probably saw only 2 or 3 leopard frogs.  There are still a few toads, tree frogs and wood frogs that appear in our yard.

We came to Kemptville in 1994 upon the closure of New Liskeard Agricultural College, where I had worked as a professor since 1986.  There were a number of staff changes over the years.  One forage agronomist who joined us there was Jim Johnston, whose wife, Wanda, had done herpetology research as a grad student in Guelph.  Jim used to accompany her in late April, collecting frog egg masses from ponds in the Guelph region and I think he said that the ponds would still have some ice on them.  I'm sorry that I don't know Wanda's last name.

My research in New Liskeard included sheep production and grazing techniques of sheep and cattle.  At Kemptville College (later Kemptville Campus), I did experiments of dairy cattle reproduction, alternative forage use by livestock and effects of varying grazing management on water quality in a creek.  I taught 22 different courses to students in diploma programs of agriculture and equine studies.  From 2007 to 2015 I also taught degree level courses in Biology, Anatomy, Nutrition and Pasture Management in a new Equine Management program.

Following the 2015 closure of Kemptville Campus, I recruited academics to help me write a textbook that I had hoped to find and use.  In November 2018, Horse Pasture Management was released by Elsevier Publishing.  I was the editor and a co-author or author of a third of the 18 chapters.  From 2020 to 2022 I helped with the new Business Agriculture diploma that Algonquin College started at its Perth Campus.  For that program I designed and delivered a course called Sustainable Practices in Agriculture. In late 2024, I finished editing the second edition of Horse Pasture Management, having added 5 chapters and updating others.  I still read about agriculture and help answer questions in some short online courses through Equine Guelph and I write some magazine articles.

If you can make use of my knowledge, please feel free to contact me.

Paul

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Paul Sharpe, Ph.D.

Kemptville, ON