The past two weeks have been so much fun! Two weeks ago, we soaked up some sunny rays before hitting the trail to Fossil Beach along the Boardman River. The day was a bit windy and chilly, but it sure was nice to see the sun. We bet this is how the frogs, turtles, and snakes along our trails feel. We hoped that they would make an appearance soon. We had so much fun that we did not take many pictures–except these to remember the cool fossils we found!
Last week was special! We enjoyed the summer-like weather and made the most of our two hours together. To start, we grabbed boots and nets and headed down to Jack’s Creek. There, we dipped our toes in the freezing cold water and enjoyed the sunshine. We got to eat our snacks beneath the cedar trees before heading to Sabin Trail in search of frogs and turtles. Along the way, we noticed lots of new buds on the trees. A sure sign of spring! We are hoping this warm weather will stick around so the new leaves can grow soon. We are ready for the forests to turn green (and for some extra shade in this sunshine)!
At the frog boardwalk, we caught at least fifteen different frogs. We also discovered that they were different species–the ones with yellow bellies were bullfrogs and the ones with white bellies were green frogs. Ms. Paige reminded us that you can tell the difference between male and female bullfrogs and green frogs based on their tympanums (the circles) behind their eyes. Tympanums are kind of like ears, but instead of hearing like humans, frogs sense vibrations in the water. If the tympanums are bigger than their eyes, they are males and if they are smaller or the same size, they are females. Almost every single frog we caught were males. We also noticed that when frogs call to each other, the water around them ripples out in all directions, making rings! We think they were trying to warn each other that we were near. Before we headed back to the nature center, Ms. Paige scooped up a painted turtle for us to see up close. We hope to find baby turtles in the coming months since we also found tadpoles swimming around. What a cool way to observe their life cycles! We wonder where the turtles will lay their eggs–perhaps in the bottomlands next to the boardwalk.
