Saturday's Critters

We had a warm spell, and now we're back to 'normal' November temperatures. Our leaves are down. 

Coyote

 

The deermice are powering up for winter! They are happy the feeder is out.

   

 I moved frogs, again. I have to take a video in order to remember my counts! 

🐸 2024 total =  88

Oct. 30 – warm day, moved 19 + 6 + 7 = 32

Oct. 31 – warm day, moved 5, nearly caught Jeremiah! Tried again, caught him.

Nov. 1 – last warm day; 10 + 8 + 9 = 29.

It's only 1 ℃ this morning. 

 

It's been 3 days of temperatures between 15 and 24 and Jeremiah finally woke up. I snagged him and took him down to the frog pond.

Jeremiah is actually the third bullfrog I've had in the pond. We had Jeremiah 1, who was a female, renamed Geraldine, and she had a smaller male move in. Geraldine and Jeremiah both succumbed to the freeze/thaw from climate change in the goldfish pond. It was gruesome. 

Geraldine – Sept. 1, 2013

 

It was an epic few days.

 

Barred owl was in the owl tree on my last trip to the wetland to dump another pail of frogs.

 

For more critters visit  Saturday's Critters # 568, where Eileen hosts.

The bullfrog and the flying ants!

I've been arguing with blogger and Vimeo on photo and video alignment. You'll have to forgive me. These durned free services!

Can you see him under the leaf? The sun has been too hot for him. We've had very hot days, but very cool nights.

Can you see the ant in his mouth?! 

Ants are out and about!

Have you ever turned a rock over, and found ants rescuing their eggs? This is how fast it all happens: Ant eggs 

I'm not thrilled with ants. We've mean ones in the dry sand near the water fountain. They have a wicked bite for such a teeny thing. Anyway, every year we see the winged ones launch themselves up into the air.

Jeremiah took advantage of them!

🐸  🐜  🐸   🐜  🐸   🐜  🐸   🐜  🐸   🐜   🐸   🐜

Why do they fly?

Black garden ant (Wiki)

"Ants mate on the wing, so "flying ants" are alates (reproductive individuals), which include males and gynes (virgin queens). The mating (or nuptial) flights of Lasius niger usually occur around June to September"

The queen takes off with the alates, they mate in the air, and she finds a burrow. She'll block up the entrance for protection, then she'll eat her wings. 😖After she lays her eggs, she doesn't eat, the wings have protein to sustain her. Losing about 50% of her body weight, she'll care for the eggs. Eventually, once the eggs go through the larva and pupa stage, to become adults, they will remove the blockage and life will continue on as they grow, forage, and build tunnels.

Random critters

Critters #42

It's that time of year with fall on the horizon

Just a few leaves are turning.

The sun has been shifting, cooler at night. It's a nice break and I don't mind the seasonal changes. Snow doesn't bother me and I'm thankful for warm clothes.

Jerry isn't thrilled with the temperatures. Geraldine just goes underwater all night.

Jeremiah was staying in the warm water.

Above the garage door on the wall...

Dragonflies are going to be gone!
Can you see the hopeful tree frog?

Look closer!
They will be hiding under the leaves soon.

Then, I moved the BBQ under the eaves, which I should have done after I finished cooking last night, and look what I found underneath.

Expert confirmation: Hypercompe scribonia Great Leopard Moth

Then, on our way in to see the chiropodist in Carleton Place, yes yet another medical appointment - he's high maintenance between food intolerances and PSA. He needs looking after, and me!
This dude passed us on a double line, going up a hill. Next, he passed the truck in front of us, he was doing 90km/hour as well. Can you see the oncoming car?

P.S. I have an ID for my previous caterpillar, with a face only a mother could love:
Lintneria eremitus Hermit sphinx

It looks something like this

Jeremiah was a bullfrog

Geraldine and Jeremiah bullfrogs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Geraldine and Jeremiah bullfrog in my goldfish pond. With 3 dozen goldfish, they seem to eat the leopard frogs. He is a new addition. She's been hanging out in our pond for 2 years, leaving only in spring to go down to the frog pond, a vernal pool, to mate.

Geraldine has a boyfriend

Gerry and Jerry!

We were in the house, with the screen door open, and I distinctly heard a bullfrog croak. Twice.  Now, the females don't, and we know Geraldine (formerly known as Jeremiah) is a female. You can tell by the size of the ear drum, which is a lot larger in males. Outside I went. Sure enough, we now have a Jeremiah.

This morning they are sitting side by each.

The honeymoon is over, though, as Geraldine sits in one end of the pond and Jeremiah the other!

I caught him, wanting to see him up close. 

As I watched the day before, he went after a leopard frog, the little cannibal. The leopard frog made it onto a log. (Surely, I can write a poem or a song with all this?!) It's a frog eat frog world out there!


Geraldine spends her days in the garden, waiting for bugs and leopard frogs, who haunt the dewy grasses. With our cooler nights (15C. last night) she spends the night in the pond, the days in the garden.

Geraldine

The goldfish pond

Childhood memories of the cottage

There were so many. At the time, it was heaven. From 1960 until I moved to Ottawa in 1981.
For only $2000 Mom and Dad bought our swamp-ridden lot.

I spent entire summers at the cottage. All of July and August. Long, lazy days filled with reading, swimming, hanging out. Then there was the boredom and loneliness!

While my mother worked the other three seasons, she took summers off to stay in her beloved Muskoka. My aunt and uncle, and another uncle and aunt, both had cottages a several of doors down. Dad commuted every Friday and Monday morning went back to work in Toronto.
It wasn't until I was older that I realized how much I missed by not going to camp. I realize how much the solitude shaped my personality. My brother went off to Air Cadet camp. I did not! I have never been camping.

Dad built a dike

Still not great in large groups, I prefer socializing in small numbers.

I just listened to This American Life:

109: Notes on Camp

JUL 26, 2013

Stories of summer camp. People who love camp say that non-camp people simply don't understand what's so amazing about camp. In this program, we attempt to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between camp people and non-camp people.

Ira Glass is right. It is a different summer experience. My kids attended camp. Jesse went to Scout camp, and later he worked as a camp counselor. He took kids for two-week canoe trips in Algonquin Park.

We couldn't afford a deck in the first years (1960-62)

Mom, myself, my brother and Aunt Adie

My cousin taking us canoeing

Eventually, Mom and Dad added sand 
to fill in the swamp.
It would be highly illegal these days.
We are losing precious shorelines, 
habitat upon which critters depend.

Dad in his beloved sailboat!

When I was a young child, it was a grand time. My cousins would turn up on weekends. They would take me boating. I remember water skiing behind their boat, using my great grandmother's wooden ironing board on which to kneel. Sadly, I am no longer in touch with my cousins, who are 20 years older than I am. We had some differences of opinion and they no longer speak to me.

Dad loved having a flag. You can see what was swamp.
It was the least amenable lot at the time. Dad worked hard on it.

The bullfrogs were huge and plentiful

The days were spent longing for friends, watching the frog pond, catching snakes, watching tadpoles. The flora and fauna were much more plentiful. I remember all the blood suckers. There were so many in those days that we kept a jar of table salt down be the lake shore. A bit of salt on the sucker and that sucker was a goner!

Jeremiah lives in my goldfish pond

Daisy is fascinated