Frog hunting in Whitehorse
I know that many of you live in areas where frogs are abundant and seeing and hearing them is no big deal. In the Yukon, though, many people don’t even realize we have frogs here, so when I saw an ad last week that Yukon Wildlife Viewing was having a Frog Walk, I signed up immediately.
At 7:00 pm on May 17th, about 25 people met near the airport and we walked to Paddy’s Pond a bit over a kilometer away. Paddy’s Pond is seen at the bottom center in the aerial view below – click here for an interactive map.
As we got near Paddy’s Pond, we stopped at an open area in the forest, and interpreters Olivia and Carrie gave us an excellent presentation on what we were hoping to see and hear, and about frogs in the Yukon in general. Yukon Environment has a “Yukon Amphibians” brochure online.
Among their stuff, Olivia and Carrie had a dozen or so plastic frogs, and they were put on the ground among us so we’d have a better idea of what to look for. This is one of their Columbia Spotted Frogs, which we wouldn’t see here. Although there are technically 5 frog species in the Yukon, the ranges of 4 of them barely go into the territory – only the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticu) can be seen in most of the Yukon, and most of Canada below the Arctic Circle.
The model Columbia Spotted Frogs are very accurate in size and colour. Pretty cool 🙂
At Paddy’s Pond we were given more information about where and how to look and listen. We could already hear some Wood Frogs calling off to the eastern part of the pond.
Paddy’s Pond certainly looks like a great habitat for frogs – and birds and animals of many kinds.
Well armed with information now, everyone scattered to find a comfortable spot to settle down and listen.
Not particularly happy with my initial chosen spot, I continued on well past anyone else, and when I stopped, I was surrounded by frogs calling! I decided to shoot some video so you could hear them, and I’m pleased with how the video turned out. You can hear the frogs clearly and almost at the end, a muskrat swims past.
On the opposite side of the pond, there were a couple of Red-necked Grebes (Podiceps grisegena). Paddy’s Pond is textbook-perfect breeding habitat for them. The next photo was shot with my 300mm lens and then heavily cropped – they were a long way away.
At about 8:30, I started back towards the car, one of the last to leave the pond. Although at least one member of the group got some good frog photos, I didn’t. I decided to go back a couple of days later to see if I could rectify that.
I invited a friend and a pup she’s fostering to join me, and just after 10:30 on the 19th, we walked through the forest back to Paddy’s Pond. Carrie had said that sunny days were good for hearing the frogs calling, so this looked pretty good.
We were disappointed to find a guy and his dog canoeing on the lake, and no frogs were calling. But, we got comfortable on the only bench at the pond, and waited. The canoe was a big surprise, as the closest road is a few hundred meters/yards away.
The foster puppy, Mia, is a beautiful little soul. She’s down from Dawson to get some health issues dealt with, but is going to be a wonderful addition to some lucky family.
The canoe guy soon left, but there was still no sound from the frogs. Carrie had said that there was a very narrow window when the frogs call – perhaps that window had closed. I never have trouble killing time as long as I have my camera with me, though 🙂 Note that there’s no sign of Spring yet.
There were a pair of gulls nesting on the far side of the pond in front of us. As with the Red-necked grebe photo above, the next photo was shot with my 300mm lens and then heavily cropped.
We were still and quiet enough that a pair of mallards came quite close to us. Yes, even Mia was still and quiet! 🙂
We never heard any frogs, so after an hour we headed back to our cars. While I had decided that the frogs’ calling period was over, a couple of days later I heard lots of them a couple of kilometers from my home. Oh well, it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours anyway.
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