Last Night: Two for Two

We closed Beekman Road again last night and it was amazing! It was a much different night than last Thursday but equally exciting. To start with, it was raining incredibly hard but that didn't damper anyone there, amphibians or people! In fact, that just added to the night and it seemed like all in attendance, frogs, salamanders, efts, people, were all reveling in the rain. It was a huge night for frogs, especially spring peepers that seemed to be everywhere on the road and were singing their hearts out to woo a partner in the vernal pools. Unlike last Thursday when the scouts counted around 180 Spotted Salamanders in just a few hours, there were only seven counted last night. Clearly, the long awaited rain last week after a protracted dry spell was the trigger for most of the population to all move on one night. I didn't see a single wood frog last night crossing Beekman but they were also singing their hearts out from the vernal pools. They must have slipped in last week during the rain and apparently may have moved on some rain-less nights that featured high humidity over the past few weeks too. Last night also featured some nice diversity, Spotted salamanders, wood frogs, at least two huge bullfrogs, Pickerel frogs, Green frogs, Red efts, a Red backed salamander and perhaps a Gray treefrog, NJ Chorus frog and an American toad from reports I heard. Plenty of people braved the heavy rain and I suspect everyone had a great time and got to see plenty of amphibians safely crossing the road. Everyone was also treated to the non-stop chorus of Spring Peepers, a sound that is so wonderful and so fleeting and so much a mark of the end of winter. We are watching the weather and Sunday may be nice and wet. I suspect the big nights of Spotted Salamander and Wood frog migrations are over for this year but that doesn't mean there won't be plenty to see and hear ahead. Stay tuned! Here are a few photos I took last night. Dave