FROGS

For now, the thunderstorms have passed, but it's still raining. It's pretty wet out there in the grass & shrubs & trees: Perfect for mating, if you're a frog.

I wish there were a way I could post the sounds I'm hearing from outside. There are at least three frogs just screaming their puffy little throats out. It's way cool!

In the spring the peepers come out: millions of tiny tree frogs sing at dusk. They really "peep." That's the best way to describe the sound they make.

I love the frogs. I'm a city girl living in the country, and I love just about everything out here. The only thing I don't like about the frogs is on a night like tonight, after a hard rain, if it's warm & humid enough, there is a carpet of little frogs on all the roads, and it's impossible not to kill them as you drive along. :(

Other than that, I dig the frogs.

luckily I avoided it....

I grew up in So Cal and when I was a little guy I remember when there were tree frogs in our area. Warm balmy nights after a little rain. The frogs going silent when I tried to track them in a near by creek bed. Very cool for a six year old boy

I don't remember hearing the tree frogs, but I remember there were tiny frogs in the shrubs around our apartments. One day I gathered a white paper bag full of tiny dark-green muddy frogs and took it home. I remember taking them to the same spot and putting them back. I don't remember what happened in between, but I'm sure my mother was in there somewhere . . . .

I love the frogs too except when one creeps under the French door of my bedroom. Stepping on frog in the morning before coffee is an experience I will never forget- It kind of reminded me of accidentally smashing a slug with my hand when I garden.

In addition to the frogs I love the woodpeckers and hummingbirds. We also have porcupines, woodchucks, possum, raccoon and skunk.

In the wet detritus under the log and stone squirmed the most beautiful salamander I have ever seen. It was bright orange with black dots on its back. I rolled the log back over the salamander and said, "Live, my friend. This is your land."


Kind of like this, but with more solid black spots.

When spring comes I open up the windows and can hear at least three domestic squabbles going on at the same time.

Ahh, spring.