It sounds like spring!

 Our skunk and Labbit have been busy. I was piffling around with the Crumbly Acres camera footage and found that both Skunk and Labbit were in the front yard. The images are not great, in the dark and black and white, but you get the idea. 

In June, 2023, she was lactating. This is a screen capture from 2023: lactating skunk. 

I have not seen her out in the day time, she's not sprayed at all. She is very wary of humans, I'll bet. I ought to put a trailcam over her burrow like last year! I tossed some dried grasses to see if it is moved today.

Here she is!

skunk Mar 25 front yard from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

OK. It is spring. The spring peepers and wood frogs are in full mating mode. Sound up! March 17, 2024, and a lovely sunset.

spring peepers & wood frogs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Apparently we're going to be having little Labbits! I went out back to check things out while my morning coffee perked. TWO cottontails!!!

2 Labbits from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Wednesday we took a drive to Merrickville. More on that later! As always ,I took too many photos. 

Trailcam tails

Our part of the world is waking up from winter. The turkeys are easing into mating season.

  

It was very exciting Thursday night. The first of the spring peepers. It's snowing this morning, so I think they might go back to sleep!

        

 The critters are out and about. We're all relieved that the snow and subzero temperatures have risen. Butch Mar 22  is so cute.

 

 

The Porcupine Mar 23  is just adorable. It just amble along, minding its own business.

 

 

I've set a trailcam up in the backyard. Bunny showed up. bunny back yard  

  

Bunny was in the front yard, as well. bunny front yard  

 

The redpolls are still here. They should be going north for the summer. Soon.

 

Thanks for hosting, Eileen! For more critters: 

Saturday's Critters # 380

Frog hunting

Citizen Science being what it is, I signed up to monitor chorus frogs. Finally, it was above 10 C. and they were awake. They haven't assigned me the two spots where I have heard them. Our frog pond and wetland, which surrounds our property, or another location where I have heard them.
We went to my sites, and had some issues with traffic! I'd forgotten my camera, and was restricted to my videocam. There was a crowd! Why she stopped there, I do not know.

Site 300

I did not think this was a good spot for them. This is a beaver dam pond. Not a frog to be heard. A lovely pair of ducks, though.

mergansers from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

 I even got out of the car and walked. JB read his book.



I heard some frogs.  Poor JB, "Turn here, turn here!"
Look at this hole! I was a bit afeared to go too close, but I sucked it up... it was wet inside.



The wetland was wet, and joyful, with the sounds of spring peepers and wood frogs. No chorus frogs.

frogs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

spring peepers

wood frog

This wetland skootched along here, right to the road. Still some ice, but they were singing!




mallards from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Neither of my two designated spots had frogs singing, but driving along I heard some more frogs. JB parked and I explored. Sure enough. This is the quarry.

In Canada, the western chorus frog is listed as threatened in the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence - Canadian Shield under the Species at Risk Act (SARA)^[5][6]

They are so funny. I found some beside the quarry. The pond is a vernal pond, and feeds into the quarry.  When I was out in the open, they stopped. I walked behind these tree branches, and they began right away.



chorus frogs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

chorus frogs 3 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We went down to my other assigned site, 301, but I think I only heard a handful of peepers, as well as lots of canada geese. I won't go back there. Here is the distribution map.

This is why many mayors of rural, cottage country towns, have told summer residents to stay home.

Signs of Spring: Osprey, Spring Peepers

We went down to the locks to see what was up. The ice hasn't gone out from the lake yet. There was an empty car sitting there. I didn't realize someone was photographing birds on the far shore! Can you see her?


The osprey hold their fish catch to streamline it under their bodies! All along highway #43 there are several osprey nests. It's not until the lake water melts that they return, more or less!

Spring Peepers

There were just a few last night, but my 5-year-old video plays the sound.

Yes, they are here, but they prefer to 'peep' in the dark, loudly, since I often work in my garden near their frog pond. The moment I spoke they became silent. I added their songs to my photos of peepers. First is the jelly-like mass in which they lay eggs. Slowly, they grow. You can see the tadpole clouds of 100s later on in the season. The tails disappear once their limbs grow. They are incredibly tiny but have large voices.



Spring Peepers Lanark is another video!

Wolfe Island Trip 2016 Part 2: videos

The idea was to snap some Snowy owls. (My FB friend, a professional photographer, spotted 13 on the weekend.) After a rainy day, then a sunny one, they had flown the coop!

Canada geese from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Spring is peeping from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Bald eagle Wolfe Island from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The Spring Peepers are a-peepin'!

Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) The wee frogs are singing in the bogs. Hundreds of thou

sands of them, all raising their voices. It is a lovely chorus. Tiny things, they are liable to being eaten by almost anything. I used to watch Patch, the young snapping turtle, hunt for them in our frog pond.

Patch, the one-eyed snapping turtle
he was killed in 2009

green frogs, snapping turtles, everything eats them!

in metamorphosis

 They are no bigger than the size of a paperclip when adults.
Brown or tan, these amphibians climb like tree frogs.
They spend they day in peace and quiet, but nocturnal as they are, they escape predators by hanging out at night.
At dusk you can year their amazing chorus, also in the early morning.

Eggs are laid in the water, in a green jelly, they hatch and emerge, losing their tails.

You can spot them if you tread carefully on the edge of the wetland, hopping to an important destination.

They eat beetles, flies, ants and spiders.
According to National Geographic, they get to be about 2.5cm (1").
In winter they hibernate under logs, behind loose bark, or other prime spots.

Spring peeper tadpoles

It is such a beautiful sound! Listen to the video to hear them. I cried for joy last night!
 

A Muskoka Beaver dam with spring peers singing

Spring peepers are peeping like mad!

The spring peepers are singing for their mates.
They sound wonderful in the night.
While many have been lauding the early spring, Climate Change or no, there is an impact, e.g., fire bans.



The wee frogs are singing in the bogs. Hundreds of thousands of them, all raising their voices. It is a lovely chorus. Tiny things, they are liable to being eaten by almost anything; turtles, larger frogs, and birds.

Currently we have limited Internet- as my Apple wireless has bitten the dust. Not bad. I bought it in 2005!
While this is a Muskoka spring peeper video, you can see how much smaller the chorus in a small frog pond.

Frog keeps in tune

Down by the frog pond. This little guy was singing. No tripod...I'm a bit wobbly!
I adore the spring singing.

Frog's eggs

It's a relief to get outdoors and get away from the election talk. The polls are crazy.

People are crazy.
Wanting more services, but lower taxes. But I digress.

Frog in our old pond, with Shirley, the goldfish

A spring peeper!

A walk in the forest part 2

We've been heavily involved in politics around here. Both federal and provincial elections in 201, things are hopping. I decided to go out and get some fresh air.

Look who I spotted on a near-by tree. Can you spot it? A pileated woodpecker. I always kick myself if I don't have the right lens on the camera. Did it again! Who knew?

I took a walk down the path to the frog pond (see my previous post! Lots of spring peepers peeping and froggies croaking.




In the meantime...look who came with me on the walk. This is our vacant, forested lot. A couple of acres, Oliver has adopted it is his own. The deer, of course, have the run of both lots. Herding cats would be easier!






  I looked behind me and here was Oliver and his buddy. Oliver takes Tigger, the deer, for a walk. I know there are videos on-line showing deer hurting pets, but Ollie ignores him, Tigger follows.

Look who I spotted in the pond. First frog spotted of the season. It is hard to see them. Brown dead leaves have sunk to the bottom, enriching the pond.

Bog and water, spongy ground, they shut up when I approach! Bad shot, I know, but on my tip toes, in flip flops, with Oliver and Tigger watching me...

I finished my walk, and headed back to the house. Oliver and Tigger stayed longer down in the gully.  A short time later...

Oliver brought me a present.
Wee little garter snake. It didn't seem too wounded and I set it back into the forest, while he wasn't looking.

I was out in the ditch picking up crap from the highway (two bags, mostly recycling: beer, pop cans!), and nearly stepped onto another garter snake! It wasn't amused.

Everyone is waking up from their sleep!

My friend inspired me. I found two bags of crap. Mostly recyclable cans. My back hurts like stink, but the sun was shining, and I felt good about tidying the roadside.





I remember doing an Earth Day project with kids in the city. We graphed it all, and it was a valuable lesson on how much it all collects in the neighbourhood.

I found so many cigarettes, cigarette packages, beer bottles, plastic water bottles, as well as the box from a birthday present. Seriously.

Spring sings in the forests and on the lakes

The story of Cap & Trade

Annie Leonard presents: The Story of Stuff: Cap and Trade
Monday, March 22nd was World Water Day.

The Story of Stuff is a powerful  one. The Story of Stuff  will take you on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture — from resource extraction to iPod incineration — exposing the real costs of our use-it and lose-it approach to stuff.

I love watching the meltwater as it heads for the lakes.  Small creeks, which will cease to exist in a few weeks, will soon dry up. Shortly, the Spring Peepers will do their best in small ponds, nooks, crannies and basins.

The early morning brings a thin sliver of ice on the open lake. The sun massages the sparkly surprise as the sun rises.

The ice melts in double-digit afternoon temperatures. The water rushes ahead of me as I walk along the old rock.

In the United States alone, [they] consume approximately 500,000,000 bottles of water each week. Imagine that: while 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water worldwide, 300 million people spend billions of dollars on a bottled product that's no cleaner, harms people and the environment and costs up to 2,000 times the price of tap water.

Take a minute today to watch The Story of Bottled Water. Then pass it along to your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers-anyone you think might be interested. 



 There is good news, worldwide...

Geothermal energy in Kenya

Kenya's underground is simmering and that's good news for the climate. Hot springs will increasingly supply the land with clean energy - especially the power plant in Hell's Gate National Park.
Project Video: Geothermal in Kenya 

At a depth of 25 meters (82 feet) below the Earth's surface the temperature remains constant, regardless of the weather or location. For every 100 meters further down, it increases by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

Geothermal in Germany 

In Germany, utilizing the Earth's natural warmth for heating is quite widespread. The heat and power plant in Neubrandenburg, for example, channels hot water with a temperature between 55 and 80 degrees Celsius from a depth of around 1,300 meters to the surface.

The water passes on its heat via a heat exchanger to a district heating network and then flows back underground through another shaft. With the help of heat pumps and geothermal collectors, some houses are heated entirely with this natural method. (My adult children have this in their home!)

Though those in Muskoka look about to see clean lakes, and people using the environment for fun, profit and leisure, it could be our days are numbered.