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<i>moved 33.0 km E</i>. <br
On 9/3/2010 11:27 PM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
> [we're] parked inland, in a partially regenerated clearcut near the
> Halifax airport, and preparing to monitor calling by Psudacris crucifer
> through the course of the storm.
* the Thirty Years Later Expedition arrived at this campsite east of the
Halifax airport (one of our party is scheduled to fly out at 18h00)
around 15h45 yesterday (in the stifling heat that's become routine
everywhere we go this summer). This is a wide spot or logdump in brushy
clearcut regeneration. We heard our first sctatchy Peeper calling at
16h06-16h08 when it was 34C, sunny, and a Force 4 breeze. At 18h36,
18h51, 19h05-19h10, and 19h37 there were isolated bouts of calling, as
the temperature dropped to 25C, and some clouds moved in. Then no more
until 21h03-21h04 when there was prolonged calling by 1 nearby Peeper at
22C, clear and calm, and then more, sometimes 2 or 3 calling
simultaneously, at 21h11, 21h13, 23h31, 22h02, 23h43-23h44, 24h11,
24h25, 24h40, 24h44, and at 01h03, when we went to bed.
At 02h15, 05h00, and 06h20 there were brief onsets of wind and rain, but
no calling heard. Then at 06h29 there was a gust of wind, followed by
one bout of calling, and at 06h36, 06h52-06h55, 06h59, 07h19, 07h34,
08h25, and 08h31 bouts of calling followed gusts of wind.
By 09h07 it was up to 23.5C, windy, probably about Force 6 in the
gusts, with intermittant rain. There has been weather, but no calling by
Peepers, until 10h56, when big gusts began to shred leaves off the
Alders and Birches.
I think we'd hear calling, since the calls are such a different
frequency from the wind noise or the CBC radio. It's going to be
interesting to see how calling resumes after the storm passes: will the
little frogs be stunned by the event, or rejoicing in the newly wet
conditions?
We don't know what autumnal calling by frogs signifies, so it's an
entertaining game to guess what it means in any particular situation -
but maybe eventually these ad hoc explanations will add up to a theory
of autumnal calling.
fred schueler
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
now in the field on the Thirty Years Later Expedition -
http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/thirty/thirtyintro.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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