On Monday night I headed down to the Frontenac area near Lake City to run my first Frog & Toad survey of the season. I figured this might be the only night this week that I wouldn't be rained out and if I waited any longer I would loose any chance of finding Wood Frogs, which have the shortest calling period of any of the frogs. The temperatures were in the 50's when I started out, but had dropped into the 40's by the time I started the run. It is not recommended that the survey be run if the temperature is below 42, but it did not drop that low until I finished. I was rewarded with great choruses of frogs at many of the stops and ended up with all 4 species of early singers: the easy to miss Wood Frog, Northern Leopard, Chorus, and Spring Peepers. Plus, I found one or two American Toads, which are not expected to be singing this early in the spring.
Not many night birds were calling. I had both Barred and Great-horned owls and a Virginia Rail. I had no Sora's answer my recording. I did flush either a Woodcock or Snipe, but I did not get more than a second to make an ID. Driving on Tuesday, I found the first Tree Swallows of the year and they were on every pond and lake I looked. Today (Friday) I had a pair of Rough-winged Swallows in expected nesting habitat: the paved lot behind a warehouse. Barn Swallows like to nest in the doorways of the docks and Rough-wings, which are cavity nests, favor the bottoms of parked trailors, On Tuesday night I found the first light loving night insects swarming on the window, a mix of midges and what appeared to be moth flies, but I have never seen them in any numbers before and especially not on my windows at night. Moth flies, look like miniature moths about a quarter of an inch long. I was also surprised that they would be out so early in the season. Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
