Tri-State Outdoor News

It was a year of watching, listening, and counting. From birds to frogs to current events, 2008 was full of wonderful sights…and sounds.

In regards to current events, Indiana saw a new senior citizens fishing license, a much-needed boost for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Fish and Wildlife. Prior to the creation of this special license, those over the age of 65 didn’t need a fishing license, which was great for senior citizens, but very costly for Indiana. By not having a fishing license, this older generation simply was not counted, translating into tens of thousands of dollars not coming our way from proceeds derived from Dingell-Johnson funds – the excise taxes paid on fishing and equipment and returned to states based on the number of fishing licenses sold. Now, with the creation of the $3 license (or the $17 fish for life), thousands of dollars are now being returned to the Hoosier state for fishing programs.

In the down side of current events within the DNR, it appears as though the loss of the Minnehaha Fish and Wildlife Area is imminent. Failure to reach an amicable land deal with Peabody Energy has caused the DNR to re-think a purchase of the now leased area. In fact, Peabody has even increased that lease price from a mere $99 to more than $80,000 a year. A purchase plan was in place when at the last minute Peabody wanted to maintain the surface mining rights on this 8,000-acre area. We applaud the DNR’s foresight to see that this isn’t a deal at all, although they are still seeking an agreement to finally put this land into the public domain.
But what about the other things we’ve been watching this past year?

I, for one, have gained a new appreciation for birds. Now, I’ve always found fascination with the big birds – the raptors, such as eagles, ospreys, red-tailed hawks and others. Then there are the more rare birds such as least terns, blacknecked stilts and whooping cranes – birds that are considered threatened but are making a comeback due to the marvelous habitat work being done right here in southern Indiana by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge. But it wasn’t until a very good friend of mine, Julie St. John, introduced me to the little brown jobbies (LBJs in birding lingo), or the little chirpy birds and I called them, did I really begin to see and understand birds. A sparrow is not just a sparrow. There are swamp sparrows, field sparrows, grasshopper sparrows, savannah sparrows, tree sparrows, lark sparrows… how does she keep them straight? With a lot of diligence and experience, that’s how. But when it comes to waterfowl, I’m one up on her there, mostly because I’ve been hunting them for many years and it helps to know what you’re shooting at.

Since December of 2007, I’ve participated in several organized bird counts with Julie and others, including David Staver, a fellow journalist I worked with for more than 15 years at the Vincennes Sun-Commercial. A count I helped with in Lawrence County last spring netted over 130 different species! I had no idea there were so many birds in our area. If you’ve always had an interest in birding but didn’t know how to go about it, just get a pair of binoculars and a good bird book, and have at it, you won’t be disappointed.
But without a doubt, it was counting – or rather listening to – frogs and toads that I found to be most fascinating. When I would tell people that I was counting frogs, the looks were at times just as amazing as the frogs themselves. Some of them, such as Julie’s friend, Brenda, simply laughed at us and called us ‘weird’.

You may wonder why, and how, a seemingly rational guy, such as myself, would count frogs. Well, for one, frogs are a very good indicator as to the health of the overall ecosystem of which we are a part. And secondly, it’s challenging and fascinating.

Last summer, Julie and I got involved with the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (administered by Indiana’s Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Non-Game and Endangered Species Program). The goal of the NAAMP is to monitor frogs and toads in order to gauge their abundance and to use that information as one of several environmental monitors. But how do you count frogs and toads? By listening, that’s how! And though it’s not an extremely difficult task, two sets of ears are definitely better than one, so I enlisted the help of my birding mentor, Julie.

We first had to learn the sounds of 18 different species of frogs and toads and then pass a listening test before we could be certified. On their own, individual species can be learned fairly easily. Using her own system of made-up phonemes that she employs when identifying bird sounds, Julie came up with similar analogies with the frogs and toads. It’s not until they start throwing multiple species into the same sound track do things get a little more difficult. You have to quickly identify the strongest calls and then “listen through” to hear the other notso- obvious calls.

Counting these frogs and toads is a nighttime activity – a late nighttime activity. Beginning 30 minutes after dark and concluding before 1 a.m., there are 10 stops along a prescribed route. Our route took us through Daviess County.

American Toads, Fowler’s Toads, Spadefoot Toads, Northern Cricket Frogs, Spring Peepers, Northern and Southern Leopard Frogs, Pickerel Frogs, Eastern and Cope’s Treefrogs, Green Frogs, Crawfish Frogs and everyone’s favorite, the American Bull Frog. That’s a lot a to keep straight when all you have to go on is sound. But we heard nearly every species, just not all at the same time. Some are noisy in the spring, some early summer, and some late summer – each triggered by the air temperature.

But of all these frogs it was the Eastern Spadefoot that caught the attention and excitement of Julie and I as we stood in the darkness on our first night of counting. You see, some of these frogs are endangered or threatened or have a very limited range and the Eastern Spadefoot is one such frog.

We were at stop nine of our ten stops on the first trip out. We had to divert nearly 25 miles due to flooding that had closed State Road 257 between Washington and Otwell, but we had to hit nine out of ten to make the count valid. Stops nine and ten were on the other side of the floodwater.

Standing there in a creek bottom close to midnight, we heard the common toads and frogs, but off in the distance in the middle of a field was a chorus of frogs sounds hard to distinguish – we needed a better vantage point. As we walked into the field a ways, the sound became deafening. A few steps further took us to a flood pool of wheat teaming with little amphibians. It didn’t take long for us to come to the same conclusion – Spadefoots. Had it not been for the visual verification, I would’ve been reluctant to make such an assessment. There were hundreds of them puffing their throats and making the most unique call. My only regret, no camera! Who would have thought I’d need my camera along at night to listen to frogs?

Since our literature didn’t list the area as a known range for this threatened species, the next day I shot an email off to Angela Garcia, who works for the DNR, questioning the find. The reply was “Yes,” she knew of the Spadefoots in that area. In fact, she was currently working on a research project involving Spadefoots in the same vicinity.

A few weeks later, during the second observation window, I went prepared, camera in hand, hoping the toads would still be there – and they were. This time they were accompanied by a few Crawfish Frogs, also considered threatened.

Well, spring is just around the corner and so is another season of watching, and listening, and counting. So be it birds, frogs and toads, or current events, 2009 will be another eventful year of outdoor activities and I hope that you can all join in and stay informed, right here in the Tri-State Outdoor News.