Category Archives: amphibians of cape cod

Spadefoot toads on the move!

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What a crazy spring it has been! One day every pond and vernal pool is full of water and then it is dry…and then it is full of water again! Imagine being one of the little critters trying to survive out there.

Vernal pools by definition dry up some time during the year but the animals that use vernal pools no doubt hope they will dry up later, not sooner. Most, such as wood frogs and spotted salamanders have adapted by having a short time before full metamorphosis occurs. Compare the few weeks it takes these species to the several years a green frog or bull frog could take.

Check out these spadefoot toad tadpoles. They are being given a bit of a headstart by a local Audubon Sanctuary with special permission from the state since they are a threatened species in Massachusetts. The Cape is pretty much their northernmost outpost and they have a hard time surviving here.

013Each of these tadpoles is about an inch long….not very big! You can see that their legs are ready to pop out and within a week or so of this photo these little guys were on all four legs and absorbing their tails. They also go from breathing through gills to breathing through their skin and tiny lungs.

Although spadefoot toads can be found in pine barrens and other areas here on the Cape they seem to have settled into dune areas. They can actually dig down 8 feet into the sand which keeps them from overheating in the summer and freezing during their winter hibernation, called brumation. Here is what a typical dune habitat with a vernal pool looks like.

010A closer look shows lots of weedy vegetation and sand.

003You can’t see them but there are hundreds if not thousands of baby toadlets in this photo….here’s one I picked up for a few seconds.

002Toadlets is really what these little guys are called but when frogs metamorphosize they are not called froglets. You can call them that if you want,though, I won’t tell.

Can you see the toadlets in this photo? They are there….

009How about in this one?

007Pretty good camouflage, huh? They need it! These little toadlets are easy targets for all sorts of hungry birds and animals and very few will actually make it to adulthood, even with thousands emerging this past week. Sobering, isn’t it?

Later in the season other toadlets will emerge from area ponds and all will face the same challenges. If you happen upon an emergence it won’t hurt to check it out but please don’t be tempted to try and keep one at home or to carry it around. Enjoy it for a minute, let the kids check them out and know you participated in a very cool event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Herring are Running

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At this time every year an amazing phenomenon takes place. Herring, alewives and shad (all the same kind of fish) return from the sea to fresh water to spawn. They come by the thousands and much of their journey is uphill.They swim through the creeks and rivers and up the waterfalls….
They hope to get by the gulls and herons that come to feed….
They hope to reach this place or places like it.
Herring are anadromous, meaning they live in salt water as adults but spawn and are born in fresh water. Late in the summer and in early fall the young herring, known as fingerlings, will return to the sea.
These pictures are a bit murky but give you an idea of the numbers of fish passing by and the ‘run’ has only just begun.
There is a moratorium on taking herring from the runs where I live since the herring population, once robust and enormous, is now severely depleted, most likely due to large factory boats taking them by the millions….

This herring run is in Brewster.

Frogs in the Bogs….

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Two of these frogs are bullfrogs and one is a green frog. Can you tell the difference? Sometimes people think because one is bigger than the other that it must be the bullfrog but remember that bullfrogs start out small and green frogs can get pretty big.Often their markings are very similar. Some are dark, some are brighter green, some have blotches and spots or look warty….in both species. Frogs tend to be darker in the spring which helps them camouflage themselves in the darker water. As the greenery grows and the overall environment seems lighter the color of the frogs will also lighten up a bit.
Check out the ridge or line on these frogs. On one frog that lateral ridge goes down the two sides of the back. On the other two it just curls around the tympanum (big ear drum).
The top and bottom frogs are bullfrogs and the one in the center is a green frog. Bullfrogs have the ridge circling the tympanum and green frogs have the two ridges down their backs so no matter how big or small or how spotty or green they are, that is how to tell them apart. Special thanks to Mary Alexander for the use of her green frog photo. All the frogs I photographed the other day were bullfrogs.