Re: [vernalpool] Big wood frog chorus in Blue Hills

I would like to get some good predation photographs without having to stage
it, for obvious reasons. If anyone observes and gets high-quality pics this
year and is willing to share them for public programs, please drop me a
line.

Matt Burne, VPA

The VPA is on Facebook. Find us at www.facebook.com/VernalPoolAssociation

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Bryan Windmiller <bwindmiller@gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> I heard a substantial wood frog chorus yesterday in the Blue Hills at a
> large, likely semi-permanent vernal pool in the notch between Great Blue
> and
> Wolcott Hills, just south of the Skyline Trail. There were at least sevearl
> dozen males calling at about 2pm - from past experience I'm certain that
> there were at least hundreds of wood frogs in the pool at the time.
>
> I also saw my first snake out in the same area, again an eastern garter.
> Interesting about that - Robert Shoop opined a while ago that perhaps
> spotted salamanders and wood frogs evolved to breed so early in these parts
> in part to escape snake predation. In my experience, however, they do not
> escape such predation. I have consistently found garter snakes active
> during the period of maximal Ambystoma and wood frog breeding. At one site
> in Westford some years ago, colleagues and I caught about 80 individual
> garter and ribbon snakes in a drift fence system while simultaneously
> catching wood frogs, spotted and blue spotted salamanders i their breeding
> migrations.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vernalpool/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vernalpool/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
vernalpool-digest@yahoogroups.com
vernalpool-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
vernalpool-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/