The Trouble with Frogs

Baby Dog has discovered the joys of frog chasing. Last evening she gaily galloped around the edge of the pond, scattering frogs by the hundreds. I tried to count them but eventually gave up. Then I tried to estimate the number of them and that didn’t work too well either. Last year when I counted 73 frogs, they were easy to count. They leapt into the water one by one, right after the other, like some kind of frog "wave" like you see at a sporting event.

This year there are so many of them that a dozen or more will leap all at once, making an accurate count virtually impossible. So I tried to estimate them like I do with a sky full of Broad-winged Hawks. It’s not the same thing. Frogs are gone quickly. Broadwings at least give me some seconds to pick a spot in the sky, look at the dots and try to figure out how many there are.

My best guess is that there are something in the neighborhood of 300 frogs in this pond. After I got to a count/guess of 150, I was only halfway around the pond, and I gave up entirely. Baby Dog was too far ahead, racing off-lead along the edge. She seemed to really enjoy making those frogs leap into the water. She was trying to start a second lap around when I finally go her to come back.