ALMOST everyone can recognize frogs and toads. They are those extraordinary vertebrate animals which change from egg to adult by undergoing metamorphosis. This remarkable process played a crucial part in these animals’ pioneering invasion of the land. It demonstrates evolution compressed into just a few weeks and it sparks our imagination.
Today, amphibians can be found in enormous variety and occupy a wide range of water and land habitats –except for the oceans and the frozen polar regions. They are so familiar to most people that they have become part of the myths, legends, and folk tales of many cultures. And there is still much more for us to learn about them for new species are being discovered even today.
Yet their habitats are being destroyed at such a speed that now many species may disappear before we even discover that they exist.
Infections of chytrid fungus, for which there is no known cure, are today spreading rapidly and threatening entire species. There is thus the real possibility that much of an entire category of animals may become extinct worldwide–unless we prepare to act quickly. Captive breeding has been shown by the scientific community to be one of the most important and appropriate ways to slow down the effects of this crisis.
Selected species, bred in favorable ex-situ conditions, can multiply and prosper to such an extent that populations can be released into secure environments in the wild. The IUCN Amphibian and Conservation Breeding Specialist Groups and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums have therefore launched The Amphibian Ark to support such ex-situ projects around the world. The global zoo and aquarium community have taken on this challenge with enthusiasm and are providing appropriate facilities and breeding grounds within their institutions. But implementation calls for financial and political support from all parts of the world.
I, therefore, extend a warm invitation to all of you to join the 2008 Year of the Frog global campaign. Its main goal is to generate public awareness and understanding of the amphibian extinction crisis. The funds raised from this worldwide campaign will help support AArk coordination activities and finance regional initiatives such as rescues, training workshops, and cooperatively managed centers. It will also ensure the sustainability of surviving populations by creating a cash fund that will extend far beyond 2008.
Without an immediate and sustained conservation effort to support captive management, hundreds of species of these wonderful creatures could become extinct in our own lifetime. Sir David Attenborough Patron, 2008 Year of the Frog Noted Author
THIS PAST summer, our nature pond in Maine was alive with green frogs in all stages of development. All at the same time there were tiny little eggs, to pollywogs with and without tails, to 4 or 5 big, burly adults, whose continuous “twangy” call, especially at night, made their presence known.
Surrounding the pond on one side, are my perennial gardens, which also were alive with something in all stages of development, but unlike the frogs in the pond, I was not happy about it. Grasshoppers of all sizes were having a wonderful time eating my flowers and since I garden organically, I had to come up with some way of reducing their numbers.
The solution to my problem was to put on my gloves everytime I walked down to the pond, stop at the gardens and catch one or two big grasshoppers with my fingers and throw them at the nearest frog sitting on a lilypad, who would gobble them right up. Sometimes, a frog would be right at the pond's edge, not fearful at all that I would be standing 3” away from it. I think it was hanging around, waiting for its next entrée. I did this so often, that I started having trouble finding the grasshoppers and it wasn’t unusual for there to be 3 to 4 frogs in close proximity seemingly lined up for their next treat!
One day, I was crouched on my knees weeding in one of the beds. As I pushed apart a couple of plants, I came within an inch of grazing the back of a large green frog with my hand. He didn’t move a muscle and I was so surprised that he didn’t hop away, but just rested there, appearing to be totally content.
Suddenly, his back arched up with his legs stretched to their max and he appeared to double in size. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the face of a little chipmunk peeking out of the gooseneck plant in front of myself and the frog. The chipmunk turned and took off, soon to peek out again with the same reaction from the frog. Three or our times this happened, with me just watching the action. Never had I seen the frogs do this to me when I got too close. It made me wonder, was the frog trying to protect himself or me, his take-out delivery person!!!
Jan McIntyre WindStar Certified Wildlife Habitat Naturalist Bar Harbor, ME
I DO NOT know if others have run into this issue with their ponds or not but, here is what is happened to mine and I am looking for some solutions. My pond has no filter, I have a large variety of plants to do all the filtration. There are no fish in this pond. Only those beings that have come from the surrounding area on their own.
When I initially set up the last fall, in the spring before I got my plants, I had a large algae bloom. String algae mostly. Once the plants were in and with the help of some barley pellets in an old pair of my wife's pantyhose, in a rather short time I had no further algae problems...until a couple of weeks ago...as the temperatures cools, daylight patterns dropped, and the inhabitants of the pond had greatly slowed down as well.
Now, once again the pond, and the plants, are quickly being overrun by algae once again. I cannot really clean the bottom as I am sure you know all those creatures are lodging down there for the coming winter. The plants obviously are no longer using all those nutrients that they had been, and so without filtration and uv skimmers, and because of the wildlife algaecides are out, so...here I am.
I have reintroduced the barley again but, I am not sure if it alone and with minimal water movement, how effective it will be. I am hoping that maybe someone may also have a similar type pond and have come across this before and have a wildlife friendly solution.
WATER gardens have become popular with homeowners in the past few years. If these artificial bodies of water are maintained in an ecologically correct manner, they become ponds in the truest sense of the word. Native wildlife will move right in and coexist with any goldfish and snails that you may have placed into your watery environment.
Most, if not all, homeowners are delighted when this happens. However, when fall comes, they clean out their ponds as they are instructed to do by the garden centers that sell the equipment and plants that you need to make a water garden, and in following years, homeowners wonder where all of the wildlife went. The sad answer is that when you clean your little artificial pond, you throw the baby (wildlife) out with the (bath) water!
If your water “garden” becomes a “pond” full of wildlife, you should not treat this manmade feature as an aquarium that needs a great deal of maintenance, but rather as the natural system that it has become.
You should remove as many free-floating leaves and stems as possible, but do not worry about getting out everything. In nature, debris settles to the bottom of ponds where it decays into a nutrient-rich muck where animals hibernate out of sight of predators that remain active all through the cold months of the year. For example, adult frogs as well as tadpoles that have not yet matured will settle down into this muck where they hope they will not be found and eaten. If you clean the pond, there is no place for these animals to hide.
Therefore, you should let the muck build up for a few years and only remove some of it after it has become several inches deep. Do this by pushing a plastic (glass might break) measuring cup down through the water carefully (so you do not hurt any of the animals) and scoop up the muck. Check to make sure there are no animals in it by first pouring the muck into a shallow plastic container, such as a dishwashing pan. Then deposit this nutrient-rich material around your plants. Do this a few times (only once per day as the fine sediment will cloud the water) in September every year and you can continue to enjoy wildlife.
ONE OF THE BEST read features of WindStar's previous e-newsletters and e-magazines has been the "Tips For Wildlife" section. Many of you have asked about adding this to the blog. We heard you and we will do it. We'll start it off with this item about safflower. You can add more tips by simply clicking on "Comments" at the end of this tip.
Tip: Do you want to be a little more exclusive in your birdfeeding? Safflower may be the solution for you. Many of your favorite birds will enjoy safflower. Blackbirds, grackles and even squirrels typically don't. Offer safflower gradually, mixing it with the seed you currently provide. Over time you'll end up with a dining spot for all kinds of birds, including House Finches, woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees!
JUST AFTER THE RAIN, La Ballona Creek is swollen with dark water and running fast through west Los Angeles into Santa Monica Bay. A bike trail runs along the top of the cement channel that now encases this once beautiful and natural creek. (Photo of pelican by Marina Tidwell)
At intervals, conservation groups have added native plants, sculptures and artwork celebrating Ballona’s pristine past, to relieve the monotony and barrenness of the channel. But it’s the water below--the waves churning and galloping in a mad race for the sea--that holds the fascination.
There’s a bridge overlooking La Ballona just before it meets the sea. You can lean over and watch the water flow past – a wayward sea lion or two might be swimming in the channel. In most places you have to look up to see birds, but here you can look down--a bird’s eye view!-- at surf scoters, grebes, cormorants, or even a merganser or two that are diving for fish. Black oystercatchers and turnstones stalk along the rock banks, their bright eyes intent on prey. Terns slice the air above with their wings and their cries, and gulls languidly drift past at eye level – too indolent or too self-assured to even glance at you.
You can cross the bridge and walk along the top of a rock jetty that follows the creek for the last few thousand feet as it empties into the bay. The wild salt tang of the sea blows in your face, awakening your senses and making feel as if you had never truly breathed before.
Some anglers in knit caps and parkas hunch against the chill wind, fishing for mackerel, and on the other side of the creek is a small-boat harbor where sailboats busily tack in and out of the narrow channel. Pelicans glide by on slow casual wing beats, like emperors lazily waving to their subjects, and willets stand sentinel every 25 feet along the rocks. They look up from their foraging and scream a disapproving "willya willya willya"--leave us alone, maybe?--as they take flight.
Braced against the wind, you make it to the end of the jetty to sit and dream as the sea welcomes the creek waters and they join in a rippling dance that stretches from just below your feet to as far as your eye can see. All the way across the blue spectacular Pacific.
Marina Tidwell Author/Photographer, Beyond the Beach Blanket, A Field Guide to Southern California Coastal Wildlife Culver City, CA
LAST MONTH my husband talked me into a visit to San Pedro Harbor, south of Los Angeles, to see the leviathan of cruise ships – the new Queen Mary II, apex of manmade luxury. She was shipping out with a full contingent of passengers and we figured we’d watch her go out past Angel’s Gate.
I dislike harbors because the pollution and build up has chased so much of the wildlife away, but while Robert headed straight for the fishing pier along the harbor beach to wait impatiently for a view of the Queen, I meandered along the sheltered, lake-like shore of the harbor.
To my surprise I saw Buffleheads, Western and Eared Grebes, pelicans, cormorants, gulls, and even a few loons in the harbor. Some tiny birds scurried along the shore, and I got out my camera and stalked them. Some sort of plover from their dart and freeze, dart and freeze movements. They kept slightly out of camera range and were so small they were hidden by hummocks caused by footprints in the soft sand.
Finally, I got close enough to get a glimpse of bars on the shoulders, a black beak, little black legs . . . Ah ha! Snowy Plovers! It was a thrill to see them, and the first time I’ve seen them outside a sanctuary. Like most of the birds in the harbor, Snowy Plovers need sheltered coastal wetlands for breeding, rest, and food. A whopping 95% of that land has been paved over in Southern California. But of course a century of urbanization can’t alter the needs that birds have had for thousands, if not millions of years, so they make do–on smaller and smaller, and more and more degraded, bits of habitat.
As I strolled, I came across two barnacles seeming to grow out of the sand. Barnacles are relatives of crabs and shrimp, but they’re stationary and live encased in snail-like shells that are normally attached to a hard surface; they can not live in sand. Curious, I reached down to pick them up, and found that the barnacles were attached to a large marine snail called a Belcher's Chorus Shell (Forreria belcheri) (see photo). Besides the barnacles, the Belcher’s had picked up a few hitchhikers–slipper snails and limpets. It was a mini-habitat offering shelter and anchorage to other creatures! It was awesome to see so much wildlife crowded onto one snail, and I felt strangely solemn as I lifted my eyes from the gnarled snail to the “mini-habitat” of the QMII and her decks full of passengers.
The Queen Mary II slipped out through Angel’s Gate in all her colossal glory, while arcs of water sprayed from the fireboats and blasts from the ships filled the air in celebration. It was a thrilling sight, but I felt like celebrating the stubborn persistence of plovers and snails with the same intensity.
Marina Tidwell Author/Photographer, Beyond the Beach Blanket, A Field Guide to Southern California Coastal Wildlife Culver City, CA
CLOUDS STREAK the sky as Santa Ana winds blow out to sea, sun-dappled waves lap at your feet, and overhead the sun is a yellow balloon tethered to the sky. Even in winter, Southern California beaches are wonderful.
But when you visit a beach in Los Angeles, where I live, skyscrapers soar above the sand, parking lots pave the dunes, and it’s easy to forget that the beach is wilderness! Surfers surf, joggers jog, sunbathers bake, and nobody seems to notice the shells along the shore–tiny indications of a vast web of coastal wildlife.
Winter 2006 brings many weekends of “minus tides,” when the low tide falls below the average low tide, which is measured as 0’. The further below 0’ the better because a lot of shoreline that’s normally covered with water is exposed–the best time for beachcombing or tidepooling and finding lots of creatures you normally don’t see. I love sandy beaches, so I decided to go beachcombing at Venice Beach, the coastal heartland of Los Angeles.
Although highly urbanized, Venice Beach is still one of the finest sandy beaches in Southern California by my standards. The curve of land protects the shore from the brunt of the Pacific and long stretches of fine sand and mud mean a good variety of invertebrates like clams, sandcrabs, worms, sand dollars, and the fish, sharks and birds that prey on them.
At the shore line several teenagers had trapped a couple of fish in a shallow pool. I heard the kids debating whether to eat them, and I asked if I could photograph the fish while they talked. I admit I had a two-fold mission: get some cool photos, and keep the kids from killing the fish.
As I sat at the edge of pool, I told the teens a little about the Barred Surfperch they’d caught. One of the teens offered to hold a fish for me while I photographed it, but I turned him down, saying I didn’t want pictures of dead fish and pointing out its beautiful glistening gold bars and silver-spangled scales. (Barred Surfperch photo by Marina Tidwell)
I told them that surfperch live in shallow water and swim almost up onto dry sand to eat clams and sandcrabs along the shore. The kids raised shouts of disbelief when I told them that instead of laying eggs, the young develop inside their mothers for several months. I explained that “ovoviviparous” fish have far fewer young than egg-laying species, but they have a better chance of survival. “One of the fish might be a mommy and you’d be killing her babies, too. You guys have a fishing permit, right? I mean it’s illegal not to have one, if you’re really going to kill these beautiful animals for a shred of meat and a mouthful of bones,” I said as I packed up.
When I looked back, the teens were digging a channel for the fish to escape to deeper waters. Mission accomplished!
WindStar Wildlife Institute Thomas D. Patrick Founder & President
10072 Vista Court
Myersville, MD 21773
Phone: (301) 293-3351 Email Windstar
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About Windstar
WindStar Wildlife Institute is a national non-profit conservation organization established in 1986. WindStar is a leader in "connecting people to nature through education." In 1999 the Board of Directors decided to move the headquarters to an award-winning, passive solar and earth sheltered structure, Terra Vista, near Myersville, MD. And, a new, four-acre demonstration wildlife habitat, containing all the elements and key components, was created for members and others to visit and to get ideas for their own properties. Each year new habitat components are added. The Institute is known for its award-winning environmental education and certification programs, web site, American Wildlife Blog and outstanding use of nature photography.
