metamorphs

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

Jest before dusk we had a thunderstorm which produced 4 mm of rain in
Bishops Mills, and this brought the Cepaea snails that had been
restrained by the recent heat seething out onto the edges of the road
shoulders.

Cheryl Doran & I walked Buker Road, SW of the village, to see how far
the snails had spread there, and in the course of finding the limit we
saw our first metamorphosed frogs of the year - little Green Frogs only
about 2.5-4 cm long - maybe the smallest Green Frogs I've ever seen, and
certainly smaller than most overwintered Green frog tadpoles.

There was also a chorus of Bull Frogs for the first time this year, no
Treefrogs calling for the first time, a few Green Frog calls, and a
single Mink Frog note. We also saw lots of Arion subfuscus out on the
gravel - these were the only slugs.

fred (we'll do identification of photos from the Kingston Bioblitz
tomorrow).
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
FI Newsletter -
https://clt1233162.benchmarkurl.com/c/v?e=15E5037&c=12D10A&t=0&l=53EF5F06
2022 annual letter: https://clt1233162.bmeurl.co/EFE49F7
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
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca>
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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 21-Jun-24 12:44 a.m., Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> Cheryl Doran & I walked Buker Road, SW of the village, to see how far
> the snails had spread there, and in the course of finding the limit
> we saw our first metamorphosed frogs of the year - little Green Frogs only
> about 2.5-4 cm long - maybe the smallest Green Frogs I've ever seen, and
> certainly smaller than most overwintered Green frog tadpoles.

* and this evening (22h38, 19C, light rain) there was a huge movement of
what were probably tiny Green Frogs away from the creek across County
Road 18 S of Huchins Corners, and in doing the streets after we got home
I had one in the village intersection, which was in the "4 cm" size
class from last night, and is in the fridge awaiting quantitative
measurement in the morning. Not a good time to be an Insect.

fred.

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 21/June/2024 12:44 AM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
> Cheryl Doran & I walked Buker Road, SW of the village, to see how far
> the snails had spread there, and in the course of finding the limit we
> saw our first metamorphosed frogs of the year - little Green Frogs only
> about 2.5-4 cm long - maybe the smallest Green Frogs I've ever seen, and
> certainly smaller than most overwintered Green frog tadpoles.

* so this year while I've been waiting to see if there's to be a
comparable influx of juvenile Green Frogs, but the streets have been
bereft of frogs (only a couple roadkilled yearling Greens & Leopards),
though I haven't been going out often late at night, and since there's
not much overnight traffic on the streets, nocturnal movement might not
have left many carcasses.

This morning, however, there were 4 juvenile Greens in our little
firepit pond, so they got there without leaving any splatted cousins on
the streets. These were about 50 mm SVL, so they are about the size last
year's juveniles would have been at this date.

fred.
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---------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

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