Pollywoggin it

Kerplunk kerplop. Three frogs simultaneously startle, leap into my pond and swim to a safe depth.

They're  Northern Red-Legged frogs and are on the Oregon Sensitive Species - Vulnerable list. They and their habitat are disappearing.  But there's something about this bend in the Tualatin river that they like.  Hamlet residents report seeing them in their streams and ponds and right now a half dozen are hiding in the bottom of mine. 


One of Ann Culter's Stafford Character monthly articles on local critters was about red-legged frogs and she told me how after she'd built her pond they moved in and laid eggs on the plants. That reminded me of a very local urban legend here about how red-legged frogs lived in the stream by my house in the 80's, but hadn't been seen since.

A year later we built a small water retention pond in a low spot of the yard and had the county put in some mosquito fish. It was like opening a Froggy Diner! That fall we had two red-leggeds come hang out for a week or so. The next fall there were a few more. This year is the first spring siting and there's practically a crowd!

These guys are travelers and don't breed here, but this is an increasingly popular rest stop on their spring and fall migrations. For a few weeks out of the year our yard is honored to be habitat for a recognized sensitive species.

And this year they're visiting over Earth Day.

Earth Day.

How the Hamlet folks decide to move into the future determines if this little frog and all the other critters that find some sanctuary here in our semi-wild little pocket of the world will continue to thrive. Currently my neighborhood is roughly 1 house per 5 acres. Flip that to 10/acre and kiss this frog - goodbye.