Sunday, March 2, 2008

Spring?

Yesterday, sometime in the morning, I heard the first Leopard Frog of this season. Long before I actually saw one of these elusive creatures in my ponds, I had dubbed them "Frog that sings in the daytime". Last evening, he was at it again, and sang to me all night long (I think. I was actually asleep much of the time, but I heard him before and after that "sleepy" time). This morning, as I went out for the newspaper, he greeted me with his song.

While his offspring yet linger in the ponds, he's come again to repeat the ongoing cycle of life! So far, I've heard no answering calls, but I know that as the pleasant weather progresses, a lady friend will appear, and I'll be serenaded by an orchestra, especially when they're joined by others of their kind, as well as the trilling toads. I often think, when I'm cleaning out my bog filter, if there's really any joy in such labor intensive catering to a few fish? But I always remember the nocturnal orchestra before I give in to the temptation to abandon the project!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful reward for your effort.

Willie C said...

Yes, it is, Bruce. I suppose that there are people to whom the songs of nocturnal creatures is annoying, but I'll bet these are the same people who are annoyed by birds singing in the morning.

I can remember that shortly after my wife and I were married, we were living in a run-down apartment that was a nice size, but a dump. That dump, however was on the second floor, and we kept our windows open most of the time.

Watching the squirrels and the birds arguing with each other was a favorite pastime.

I always cherish my connection with the outdoors.