The Amphibian Breeding Event (2024)

2024, so far has been a warm year. In late February, days were regularly reaching the 60s, which is way ahead of the previous years. Myself, as well as people i've talked to, are expecting early breeding this year.

On February 29th, the first warm rainstorm occurred: The natural trigger of the migration of wood frogs, spotted salamanders, spring peepers, and others. Unfortunately, when I made a visit to a local vernal pool (Nupsee Pond, at Nobscot Scout Reservation) that afternoon, there were only a few frogs calling. Based on the level of noise, I'm guessing 1 or 2 wood frogs were calling (very sporadically) and maybe 5 spring peepers. Very different from the hundreds that are supposed to gather at each pool on the "Big Nights" (the main breeding event of the frogs). In past years, this pond has created a deafening roar at dusk, when the breeding occurs. I brought a friend to hear the frogs with me during a big night in 2023, and we had to yell to each other, over the noise. That was in late march. On February 29th, a wide sheet of ice remained, floating in the center of the pond. Today, maybe a few confused frogs had migrated, but the bulk of them were still underground, waiting.

There were a couple of rainy, foggy days after that, all in the 40s and 50s, but none of them seemed to bring out the Amphibians. Complete silence. During these days, I focused on flipping logs, in hopes of finding spotted salamanders to photograph. I carried my Canon R7, mounted with both a Sigma EX DG 50mm macro lens, and a Z2 flash, repurposed from my DSLR camera trap, which hasn't been successful yet. The possibility of finding spotted salamanders, or the even more uncommon blue spotted salamander, marbled salamander, or Jefferson's salamander drove me to flip logs for two hours one day. I uncovered overwintering centipedes, millipedes, slugs, cockroaches, earthworms, and even the extremely common redback salamander. I found 3 redbacks, which were all still lethargic after being deep underground, in hibernation throughout the winter. It was exciting to see them for the first time since October, but they were not a target species. 

 

Another thing I noticed during this time was that there was constant movement on the surface of the water at the vernal pool. I thought that this was from wood frogs at first, but It was really from a combination of eastern newts and bullfrog tadpoles, which had spent the winter remaining active under the ice. The water was teeming with life, at a closer look. Midge larva, caddisfly larva and water boatmen filled the water, swimming around.

After this, I made a few other visits to vernal pools with no success. On March 30th, I finally approached a pond in Lyons-Cutler Reservation in Sudbury. The vernal pool was loud, as the sun set. The calls of wood frogs were absent, and I could only hear a loud chorus of peeps.

 I paused for a moment. It sounded like I was only feet away from a peeper, but I didn't see any. I decided to take off my shoes and socks, and wade through the freezing water barefoot. After a few minutes, my feet were going numb, and I started wading back towards the shore. Suddenly, I saw a tiny brown frog kicking in a panic, trying to take cover under the leaf litter. I gently picked it up. Finally a good subject. Unfortunately, I was carrying my telephoto lens, not my macro lens, so I carefully placed the frog into a pouch, made of damp leaves, and sprinted back to the parking lot to swap lenses. As I set up the macro lens, the frog escaped, and began hopping across the road. I lied down, getting almost to eye level with the frog, and took my first shots.

 

I then took the frog to the woods, to capture it in leaf litter...

Next, I brought it to a small feild, with good sunlight. The sun was setting fast, and the amount of space that was illuminated was dwindling. In the feild, there was a patch of common haircap moss, that was glowing with golden hour sunlight. The only thing still bright in the entire woods. I let the frog hop along the moss, and tried photographing it there...

...That was my best photo from the set (in my opinion). Here it is after post processing...