clobbered Peepers?

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

This spring we've had a single Peeper calling from our little backyard
pool for the first time, but there was only one night when we heard a
real chorus of Peepers from here. Andy Foyen on facebook had a site near
Ottawa with very few Peepers.

And just now at 13°C and calm & overcast, there's only the one pool
Peeper calling. There were very distant Toads from a couple of
directions, but I'm forced to conclude that last year's drought has
clobbered the local Peeper population (there was water in the backyard
pool all summer, so the Peeper that's calling there may have found the
pool last summer).

Dave Seburn "got out for a couple of late Chorus Frog surveys last week
(Sat and Mon afternoon). Sat was a bit too windy in the afternoon and I
did not hear CF at many sites. Mon was calmer and I heard them at more
sites, but still not a lot. Never heard any calling above an index 1,
although I did hear them calling at a site I haven't heard them at
before. My sense is that I was out too late and just catching the tail
end of the season and some pops had already stopped calling."

I wonder what others have heard or seen? Even if we don't have detailed
studies (at 7°C it's hard to tell what's not there) I think the drought
was so severe that we ought to put together something like "Scrappy
inferences of the consequences of a severe drought for Anura in eastern
Ontario" for the Canadian Herpetologist.

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 5/4/2026 9:51 PM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:

> There were very distant Toads from a couple of directions

* has anyone seen a place where I could scoop up a bucketful of Toad
eggs or tadpoles for my scheme of flooding Bishops Mills with toadlets
from our little pool? (I could also use a pair of Toads that haven't
laid yet).

One of the findings of our 20 years of doing-the-streets is that
juvenile Toads only show up in Bishops Mills in very modest numbers
every 4-5 years, and I would like to flood the village with juvenile
Toads from our little pond to see how this affects the on-road counts.

[Robert Lee]

I took my partner Peggy out for local drive this evening just to enjoy the strong calling of Peepers in the roadside marshes near the intersection of Peneshula and Bellamy Roads (in the northern corner of Lanark County). Heard the Peepers in a dozen places, and a few Chorus Frogs in each of half-a-dozen places within a kilometre of the intersection.

Rob Lee

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[rmb...@istar.ca]

North of Perth Road Village, they've been calling sporadically. This
yo-yo weather of cold, warm, cold, nearly hot, really throws them off.
I missed the mating dance of the salamanders, and haven't heard any
wood frogs. Of course my truck was parked out at the end of the
laneway due the mud sinkhole halfway out, and then the battery died,
so at the peak of the season I wasn't able to drive out to the
"laneway pond" to see what activity was taking place. About 4 days
ago I heard my first treefrogs, which seems early.

I've been wondering what effect the drought had on the moths. I found
very few caterpillars in September. The big tree leaf eaters probably
weren't affected, but the weed leaf eaters' food supply was pretty
well shriveled up by end of August. Last year was a banner year, I
haven't had the moths lights on as many nights during April as I had
last year, it's just been too cold. I'm still trying to get caught up
on processing photos and uploading to iNaturalist, just found the
thumb drive that had my September observations. There are not many
for September and October, it cooled off right after Labour Day, and
most nights I was vey tired from gathering firewood during the day.

I've got to get out and do more prowling, the nice days we've had I've
been busy catching up on outdoor cleanup work. I'm gettin' old and
slowin' down, and I'm not liking that!

Rose-Marie

[e.g. g]

area centered on Scotch Point:

Peepers: v locally, none in pondlets or ephemeral woodland puddles; choruses of any size at all were in the marshy margins or extensions of bigger wetlands/lakelets. And calling season seemed over sooner than usual.

Wood frogs:  earlier, only a few, and the usual short call season seemed even shorter than usual.  (I hope it was because lady frogs found them fast) 

Small clusters of chorus frogs seemed widespread in my larger area: notably in most of the parallel sloughs along the NE-SW-running concession roads north of Toledo and west of the Smiths Falls-Brockville road.  The few near me have been calling steadily for a while and are still calling (maybe lady chorus frogs are slower)

Have not heard toads.

Treefrog was calling two weeks ago.

Elizabeth G

[Nick Cairns]

Hopefully it's just a delay. Peepers were not bad in Opinicon last week but nothing deafening. 

Best,

Nick