Last night and tonight

[Kurt]

Saw a few peepers last night. John Clare, Ray Coderre, and myself went to Bolton, MA to help out with keeping salamanders and frogs from becoming road kill. I was wet, tired, cold, and in a little bit of pain, but it was well worth it. Met some great people and saw some cool stuff. Besides the peepers, we saw wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and the much rarer blue-spotted/Jefferson's salamanders. A lot of these critters could be seen in our torch and headlights as they crossed the road. I have never seen so many spotted salamanders in my life!

Tonight, I went out the vernal pond in the woods behind my house here in Billerica, MA. It was totally the opposite of what I saw last night. In a pond, that in the past had chorusing wood frogs, there was no activity at all. I did see a frog, but it was too big to be a wood frog and I couldn't really make a positive ID with my pathetic flashlight. What I did see a lot of was trash, plenty of it. Upon heading home I passed by another vernal pool and thought I heard the choruses of Lithobates sylvaticus, but as I began to head towards that direction, the wind kicked up and all I heard was the wind howling in my ears. When it finally stopped, dead silence. I waited for a while, I even killed the flashlight, but still there was no sound other than the wind, rain, and the occasional airplane overhead.

I will try to get tomorrow during the day and take a look around and maybe tomorrow night with a much more powerful flashlight.