Odd fodder: Frog days of spring
Even frogs are screwed up. While I tramped along with
Allison Sacerdote- Velat, curator of herpetology at the Peggy Notebaert NatureMuseum, to monitor frogs and salamanders Friday, she said I should have been there the day before.
Chorus frogs, wood frogs, spring peepers and leopard frogs were all calling.
“It is so unusual to have them calling together,’’ Sacerdote- Velat said. “They’ve been wanting to breed. It has been a long, cold spring.’’
Temperatures on Thursday were in the 70s; by the time we finished Friday afternoon, they were back in the 40s.
“They’re explosive breeders, but they are also attuned to what is going on here,’’ Sacerdote- Velat said of our odd spring.
Those who spend time outdoors are attuned to how odd our spring has been. We’re on theway toward a record cold April. It’s not normal to have this many spring snowfalls.
And let me get this off my chest. Few things tick me off more than those who pooh- pooh talking about weather when it’s knocking on record oddities. Chicagotough my butt, more like outdoors- stupid. I digress. Land or water, it’s odd. Snow cover greeted turkey hunters in Illinois’ north zone for the openerMonday.
It’s not usual to have water temperatures regressing to or holding near 40 degrees instead of climbing through the 50s. On March 28, I followed biologist Rob
Miller and his crew as they collected brood- stock walleye. Instead of the 50 degrees on the Kankakee River he would’ve liked, it was in the mid- 40s.
In a quirk of nature adjusting, at least one female was already spent, cold water or no.
On April 4, I drove through a snowstorm to meet biologist Jeremiah Haas for walleye collection on the Mississippi River, where the main channel was down to 40 degrees and walleye breeding progression was behind schedule.
Last week, biologist DavidWyffels delayed muskie netting at Shabbona Lake with the water holding in the low 40s.
When it comes toWisconsin’s gamefish opener, guide Kurt Justice emailed this in his weekly report forMinocqua, “Things look grim, with upward of 30- 34 inches of ice covered by two feet of snow and only 19 days ’ til May 5, forecast is bleak. Weekend’s heavy snowfall quashed the hopes of even the most optimistic of us for open water come early May.’’
Not sure if sarcastically or not, but on Friday, John Vukmirovich sent a note linking toWalt Whitman’s long elegy, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.’’
One line stood out more than usual— “Stands the lilac- bush tall- growing with heart- shaped leaves of rich green.’’ Someday. Lilacs blooming are more than a literary device. That also signals smallmouth bass spawning and white bass running. It will come.
High schoolers
Stevenson senior Samantha Hartman
Stack house had the top individual score ( 296) at the National Archery in the Schools Illinois State Tournament at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. ... Minooka senior Alec Berens was one of 12 named to the Bassmaster High School All- American Fishing Team.
Wild things
Ken Gortowski noted Friday that the hummingbird migration map ( hummingbirds. net/ map. html) and the map of reports of morel mushrooms in Illinois (“Illinois MorelMushrooms’’ Facebook page) nearly matched.
Stray cast
Our spring or DanMcNeil’s broadcast schedule? Light ’ em up.