{"id":8814,"date":"2011-04-15T22:01:41","date_gmt":"2011-04-16T03:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8814"},"modified":"2011-04-15T22:01:41","modified_gmt":"2011-04-16T03:01:41","slug":"creatures-of-the-night-in-springtime-bog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8814","title":{"rendered":"Creatures of the Night (in Springtime Bog)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gb<\/a><\/p>\n

American Toad (Bufo americanus)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pitch black, heavy clouds and driving rain.\u00c2\u00a0 The absolute best springtime conditions to venture into swamps and bogs of Massachusetts’ South Coast to spy on the ardent rituals of awakening amphibians.\u00c2\u00a0 The Turtle Journal\u00c2\u00a0vehicle\u00c2\u00a0splashed\u00c2\u00a0through bottomless puddles.\u00c2\u00a0 Our lights\u00c2\u00a0probed the gooey darkness as we crawled along\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0cratered one lane road half a\u00c2\u00a0mile through flooded wetlands to reach the abandoned Goldwitz cranberry bog.\u00c2\u00a0 Our arrival was greeted by a riotous cacophony of spring peepers, American toads and wood frogs.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"gb<\/a><\/p>\n

American Toad from Nighttime Goldwitz Bog<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We donned our field gloves, grabbed our sampling nets, snapped on our flashlights and plodded through several inches of rain as we searched the bog channels for creatures of the night.\u00c2\u00a0 Spring peepers were everywhere, and we decided to net one of them last because they are so\u00c2\u00a0difficult to restrain in the darkness.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue Wieber Nourse spotted an American toad and snagged it for closer examination.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Examining American Toad<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Eastern American Toad is a medium size amphibian and fairly common in the wetlands of Southeastern Massachusetts.\u00c2\u00a0 This specimen proved quite cooperative during documentation and was quickly released back into the bog channel to continue its mating rituals.<\/p>\n

\"peeper<\/a><\/p>\n

Spring Peeper (Pseudoacris crucifer)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Lewis netted two spring peepers for closer examination.\u00c2\u00a0 They are brown, tan or beige, and can easily be distinguished by the dark “X” or cross on their back; hence, the name “crucifer” or cross-bearer.<\/p>\n

\"gb<\/a><\/p>\n

Spring Peeper from Nighttime Goldwitz Bog<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These tiny frogs, ranging from less than an inch to maybe an inch and a half,\u00c2\u00a0are the most common voices in South Coast wetlands during the spring.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Examining Spring Peeper<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So small, they are quite difficult to control and photograph at night without harming the animal.\u00c2\u00a0 We snapped a couple of quick photographs and captured a short video clip as\u00c2\u00a0they escaped from the back of the Turtle Journal vehicle.\u00c2\u00a0 Within a wink, the peepers had disappeared into the night storm.\u00c2\u00a0 Drenched, but contented, we also disappeared into the darkness as we retraced our way back to Turtle Journal central.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Toad (Bufo americanus) Pitch black, heavy clouds and driving rain.\u00c2\u00a0 The absolute best springtime conditions to venture into swamps and bogs of Massachusetts’ South Coast to spy on the ardent rituals of awakening amphibians.\u00c2\u00a0 The Turtle Journal\u00c2\u00a0vehicle\u00c2\u00a0splashed\u00c2\u00a0through bottomless puddles.\u00c2\u00a0 Our lights\u00c2\u00a0probed the gooey darkness as we crawled along\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0cratered one lane road half a\u00c2\u00a0mile through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402,826],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8814"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8849,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8814\/revisions\/8849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}