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Category: Wetland Wildlife
Spring peepers, the diminutive harbingers of spring make their presence known by the males distinctive call. A single peep, about once very second, is no small matter - the quality, speed and volume of the call it is how the male spring peeper attracts the attention of a female. Together, the combined calls of many frogs on a spring evening can be noisy, but not unexpected considering the vocal sac rivals the size of the frog.

No larger than a quarter, with a distinctive "X"on their back, spring peepers are found in water bodies without predatory fish, mostly vernal pools and other wetlands found in deciduous woodlands.

During the Spring, the female can lay up to 1,200 eggs, but singly not in clumps as with many other frogs. After depositing eggs, the frogs they move back into the woods until the cold weather, and overwinter by producing glucose, which acts as a type of antifreeze to protect them during hibernation until the next Spring.

Some photos below.

Spring Peeper with disttincitve





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Category: Miscellaneous
Wetlands and Beer generally don't have much in common besides water, but I saw the logo of the Stony Creek Brewery and thought I would share it. The brewery is located on shore of the Branford River in Branford, CT. I love the stylized heron logo with a head of wheat for it's comb. If the beer is as cool as its logo, I'll have to buy some!

Stony Creek Brewery

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Category: Books & Media
I never though I would be writing about wetlands and the TV show, Sharktank in the same blog post, but here we are! This past Friday, Sharktank hosted an entrepreneur who came up with a sustainable alternative to peat moss. Ive written about the importance of peat bogs in the sequestration of carbon, and how little peat, only 1-2mm/yr is replaced annually. Once removed, it can take hundreds of years to replace, which doesn't even take into consideration the other ecological effects of removing peat, which bog plants, inculding the sundew, venus fly trap and other unique plants and animals rely upon.

The owner of PittMoss, described the process the peat moss alternative made from a propieatary blend of organic additives and reclaimed paper products destined for the landfill.

Check out the Pittmoss site Pittmoss site, its short video and more info on the Sharktank Blog

Wetlands in the News

25 April 2024