frogless roads ended

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

As I was coming back from the pond (no frogs seen, no submerged slugs,
no snails or Salamanders or Beetles in the minnowtrap), contemplating
writing a Naturelist post about the fact that I haven't had any frogs on
the doing-the-streets transect here in the village (and almost none seen
in driving around), I glanced down at the pavement at the driveway of
the Pentecostal Church, and saw a gummy mass, which turned out to be the
skin of a Grey Treefrog. We'd heard Treefrogs calling from trees on 18 &
28 April, and had one on the streets on 1 March 2017, so this isn't
unprecedented, but it is unprecedented to have the first on-road Anuran
in mid-May - last year's drought must have really knocked back the
populations of several species.

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]

I'm wondering if, combined with last year's drought, this year's yoyo
weather is having an affect on their movements. Really warm for a
couple days, then cold. Maybe they made a dash for it on one of the
warm nights? Chilly this week but this weekend is supposed to warm up
with daytime temps (Kingston area) up to 27C and 28C. TOO darned
warm, I've got some outdoor work to catch up on. I adopted a 2 1/2
month old puppy from the shelter and she and doctor appointments and
the rain have kept me busy.

Rose-Marie

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[cvetter]

Last night in the rain we had chorus frogs and peepers again,  first time since the dry weather started. Also one tree frog and toads.

Candice 

Sent from my Galaxy Tab A

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[Tana McDaniel]

We have had very low amphibian and reptile  road mortality so far this year in Niagara. Part of the reason may be that many the roadside ditches and adjacent wetlands dried completely last summer. However it does seem the cold weather is keeping snake movements down. We are mainly finding them under the metal barn roofing we put down or sunning on rocks. I have seen almost no snakes on the road alive or dead.

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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 5/14/2026 9:11 AM, Tana McDaniel wrote:
> We have had very low amphibian and reptile  road mortality so far this
> year in Niagara. Part of the reason may be that many the roadside
> ditches and adjacent wetlands dried completely last summer. However it
> does seem the cold weather is keeping snake movements down. We are
> mainly finding them under the metal barn roofing we put down or sunning
> on rocks. I have seen almost no snakes on the road alive or dead.

* ditto in Bishops Mills - and on Saturday the South Nation & Ontario
Nature held a workshop on their coverboard protocol at the Snake Island
Forest near Metcalfe -
https://catalog.ontarionature.org/long-term-snake-monitoring/page/1 -
and we turned 25 2x4 foot cover boards at a measured ground temperature
of 25°C, and didn't see a single Snake or Amphibian.

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 5/13/2026 5:42 PM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> As I was coming back from the pond (no frogs seen, no submerged slugs,
> no snails or Salamanders or Beetles in the minnowtrap), contemplating
> writing a Naturelist post about the fact that I haven't had any frogs on

> the doing-the-streets transect here in the village...

* but the other side of that foray was huge numbers of mature Cepaea
nemoralis snails on the half-metre of dead grass between the gravel
shoulder of the road and the living grass - about 10/metre just south of
the village, and lots more active in the green-grassy roadsides, and
going up Cottontail-killed Apple sprouts. The drought certainly didn't
kill off Cepaea, and the mature snails look a couple of mm bigger than
usual. Tonight's plan is to map the extent of the population (introduced
here by us in 1981) along all the roadsides in the village.

[e.g. g]

My first toads of 2026: singing hard at site w of Jones Falls on Tues.

At my location Scotch Point, this week noticed first time some wood froglets on the move.

Elizabeth G

On May 14, 2026, at 8:12 AM, 'cvetter' via NatureList <natur...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[rmb...@istar.ca]

The only snake I've seen here was the dead redbellied snake in front
of my mailbox a couple weeks ago north of Perth Road Village. Usually
by now I would have seen water snakes, ribbon snakes, and garter
snakes. Maybe this weekend with the the warm weather will liven
things up.

The last warm spell I had seen a few dragonflies buzzing about and
some bumblebees, but the chilly weather has brought things to a halt.

Rose-Marie

>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/6+St-Lawrence+Street?entry=gmail&source=g>

>> Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
>> > on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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>> >
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[AL RUBIN]

Hi Fred, 

It’s Sara and Al Rubin here in Rochester NY. You and Aleta stayed at our house, Fred, when some years ago you came down to advise the Laser Lab at the University of Rochester on construction of several ponds and the Phragmites situation.

My personal (smaller) problem is that this year, in our little backyard habitat, I.e. a garden pond, a “marsh”, a waterfall, and a short stream, there have been hardly ANY amphibians! 

Every previous year on April 15 (true, tho odd) we have heard the Am.Toads begin calling. This year to date we have heard maybe two toads trilling, and only heard them twice! 

What is going on? In the whole history of our little habitat, begun in the late '90s, we have always had a vigorous population of toads singing, sometime overpoweringly, through June! 

We have seen Green Frogs, several times, probably 4-5 at one time, but haven’t heard them calling yet. (It’s probably early for them.)

And our small Spring Peeper population has not been heard at all. These little guys were declining a bit each year, a small backyard “wetland” is not really a proper habitat for them, and I was always thrilled when each year some did persist, but now I think they are gone.

But what about the Toads? I had come to think of them as indestructible! The pond is not vernal, and never dries out; it has water all year. Is this related to the sparseness of other reports of the dearth of amphibians coming from many Nature List folks?

Any ideas?

Sara

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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 5/14/2026 6:26 PM, 'AL RUBIN' via NatureList wrote:

> My problem is that this year, in our little backyard

> habitat, I.e. a garden pond, a “marsh”, a waterfall, and a short stream,
> there have been hardly ANY amphibians!
> Every previous year on April 15 (true, tho odd) we have heard the
> Am.Toads begin calling. This year to date we have heard maybe two toads
> trilling, and only heard them twice! What is going on?

* I'm blaming our local declines here on last summer's drought, which I
suppose was as serious in Rochester as it was in eastern Ontario. In
Bishops Mills we have small waves of juvenile Toads every 4-5 years, and
only hear calling from distances of what must be 500-800 m.

Maybe you have had some sort of ranavirus that has taken out multiple
species? If you can find a sick or moribund specimen you might be able
to get it tested, so you might ask the DEC who could do that.

We're going to scoop up some Toad tadpoles from Kemptville to see if we
can boost the local Toad population from our little pond, and you might
do that for the species for which you can get eggs or tadpoles.

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

> In the whole history of our little habitat, begun in
> the late '90s, we have always had a vigorous population of toads
> singing, sometime overpoweringly, through June!
>
> We have seen Green Frogs, several times, probably 4-5 at one time, but
> haven’t heard them calling yet. (It’s probably early for them.)
>
> And our small Spring Peeper population has not been heard at all. These
> little guys were declining a bit each year, a small backyard “wetland”
> is not really a proper habitat for them, and I was always thrilled when
> each year some did persist, but now I think they are gone.
>
> But what about the Toads? I had come to think of them as indestructible!
> The pond is not vernal, and never dries out; it has water all year. Is
> this related to the sparseness of other reports of the dearth of
> amphibians coming from many Nature List folks?
>

> Any ideas? - Sara

[Matt Keevil]

I forgot to mention it, but I heard toads at my place on April 27 https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/355806849 This was welcome because we did not have toads breeding here in most recent years.

Matt

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