From Whales to Wood Frogs

I did about 300 miles yesterday, so today, I didn't want to drive too far. Knowing that winter is almost over I looked at my list of winter daytrips to do. I can't do two of them. One thing I hoped to do this winter was snowshoe the trails at Wachusetts Reservoir. Someone told me coyotes will hang out on the ice and if I'm patient, I could see them.  We didn't get enough snow to snowshoe, and the lake never froze. My other thing I wanted to do was take a winter trip to Cuttyhunk with a stop to look at seals. I didn't realize the ferry only goes out twice during the winter. Once was last Saturday. The
other time is this coming Saturday, but ironically I will already be on a boat trip out of Point Judith.

My only other winter plan is to go to Daniel Webster Audubon Sanctuary, but I can easily do that in an afternoon after work, especially since clocks spring forward tonight. So I did what I normally did on days off this winter, I looked for birds. I didn't find many. I only saw one new species for Rhode Island, and that was a brown headed cowbird.

All the little brown dots on the surface were
frogs not sticks. The whole pond looked
like this

By far the highlight of my day was a walk at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center. I went for a walk to a small pond, before even seeing it, I could hear the tell tale sound of wood frogs. Wood frogs breed in vernal pools. After a warm spring rain, they gather in pools. The males croak to impress a female. It is cool to hear and see so many frogs. I brought my camera and got some pictures. The key to getting good pictures is patience. I couldn't get close to any. As I walked the shoreline, I'd spook the ones fifteen feet in front of me. I decided to sit on a rock and wait it out. Within five minutes I had frogs floating past me only four or five feet away. I think two or three of them actually enjoyed posing for photos. Of course that was a joke, but I do think they are naturally curious since I looked like they came in for a closer look to see what I was,