Frogs miss ‘live animal’ program

HOLDEN – April 11 is the usual date by which the wood frogs “queck queck” in the frog pond near the Fields Pond Audubon Center.

We see their eggs in the water a week or so later. Not this year. Not this spring. Amphibians need a temperature of 42 degrees Fahrenheit to move around. This spring was too cold, especially at night, for them to move.

Last week, we scheduled a series of “live animal” programs for children during the April school vacation. These draw about 75 children and their parents. One program was about “live frogs and salamanders. See them up close!” We were confident that these amphibians would be out of hibernation by that time.

Not so. Vernal pools in the Bangor area were still mostly frozen over.

Ruth Perry, Fields Pond Audubon Center environmental educator, worked until midnight the night before to make a PowerPoint presentation. She used photos of wood frog, green frog and bullfrog, and their songs.

That morning, she taught a handful of older children, our best young naturalists, about frogs. She explained how she, with their help, would teach younger children about frogs.

In the afternoon, 75 children from Corinth to Old Town to Bucksport attended the program. Ruth bravely faced her audience and explained that frogs are not out from hibernation yet, because of the cold spring.

She showed them her PowerPoint presentation, had the children identify models of the frogs and taught the children to make frog sounds. Her cadre of older children did a great job. Younger children loved the program – they are so wonderful and forgiving when things don’t go just as adults plan.

Spring birds also have had their challenges in this miserably cold spring. Phoebes arrived the weekend of April 14-15. Many then disappeared from the yards and sheds, porches or garages where they made their nests last year. Not to worry too much – when it gets cold, phoebes head for a fast-moving river or stream, where the stoneflies live most of their lives.

Stoneflies get their name from their lifestyle of living under stones in streams. They live there most of their lives, until they are ready to metamorphose. Then they pop up out of the water as flying adults. There are many species of stoneflies, and some metamorphose in March and April.

Voila! There’s the food to sustain your phoebes until it’s warm again. Then they will return.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.