Greetings!

Can you believe we are already almost half-way through April? Western chorus frogs, wood frogs and spring peepers have been busy calling. Green frogs and American toads have been observed migrating to their breeding ponds over the past few warm and rainy nights.

Many of our daytime frog monitoring teams have completed 2-3 of their monitoring visits. If you are a daytime monitor and you haven't made your first visit yet, please plan to go out in the next week.

For evening frog monitoring, teams will be planning to make a visit in the week of April 14-21, following the timing of the 2024 protocol.

If you have questions about the protocol or would like me to accompany your team for monitoring please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. You can also connect with me and other frog monitors by joining one of our Frog Friday lunch meet-ups (see below for more info).

Read through this newsletter for more useful info, resources, and highlights from the field.

Thanks,
Aiesha Aggarwal
Conservation Analyst
Frog monitoring program coordinator

Phone: 705-326-1620
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Useful Links:
Resources to learn Bird ID
Wetlands are great places to hear not only frogs, but birds as well. Here are some useful resources for improving bird identification skills:

  • Merlin: use this app to automatically identify bird species from recorded audio. This is a handy app to use in the field but keep in mind that it is not always 100% accurate.
Some birds commonly encountered while frog monitoring are: American woodcock, Wilson's snipe, killdeer, barred owl, common nighthawk, barred owl, American robin, red-winged blackbird, and wood duck.
Optional: Zoom meet-ups
This year, I will be hosting a few lunchtime Zoom meet-ups for frog monitors. It is an opportunity to ask questions and chat about your frog monitoring experiences with other volunteers. I can also create breakout rooms for Landscape help, if needed.

The first two Frog Fridays will be on:
April 19th, 12pm - 1pm
April 26th, 12pm - 1pm


These events are optional to attend. If you would like in-person help, please email me to set-up a time.
Highlights from the Field
  • March 14th: Ann and Neil heard two species at risk (western chorus frogs and Eastern Meadowlarks) during daytime monitoring

  • March 28th: Sue heard wood frogs while daytime monitoring

  • April 6th: Meagan and Julianne heard plenty of wood frogs on their walk to their monitoring site - a first for a site that has been monitored since 2017.

  • April 7th: Jane and Shirley observed many wood frog egg masses

  • April 10th: Courtney and Janet heard a barred owl while monitoring

  • April 12th: wood frog breeding activity and many toads on-the-move during the Wilson Point Wetland amphibian migration. See the observations on iNaturalist
More Useful Links
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