Went out for a look at a few vernal pools and found wood frog egg "rafts" shimmering as the eggs were hatching and the tadpoles were starting to move. Spotted salamander eggs are present in the pools as the larval salamanders develop within. Water levels are low and the trees have not yet leafed out. Let's hope that the rain arrives in the next few days as predicted..
Looking forward to your observations!
There is still quite a bit of snow in the woods, but I decided to visit a couple of favorite vernal pools. One still had significant ice (6 inches or so), but at the edge of the second pool I found a very small open water area (like 8 cm x 15 cm). I took a few swipes at the mucky, leafy substrate and found some macroinvertebrates slowly swimming in the cold water. The coolest one was what looks like a small hellgrammite -- perhaps one centimeter in length. Looking forward to learning about the vernal pool activity this year in your part of New Hampshire.
After a couple of weeks of wood frogs chorusing, they appear to have finished this season's breeding. Now the eggs are quietly developing in the pools. I was able to locate a couple of "new" vernal pools in the town forest, by following the wood frogs chorusing. Time to check the pools and see how productive they were! Enjoy your vernal pool exploring!
While a few wood frogs and spotted salamanders headed to pools a couple of weeks ago, they have been pretty lonely. It's likely that more of them will head to pools with the "warm" rain underway. Check out your woods and listen for the quacking of wood frogs on your walks. Recordings of wood frogs calling may be uploaded, as well as photos. Thanks -- and enjoy the spring (but keep your distance)!
A vernal pool is a temporary body of water (wetland) that provides essential breeding habi- tat for certain amphibians – such as wood frogs, and spotted salamanders – and inverte- brates – such as fairy shrimp.
Vernal pools are important as wildlife habitat because of the wide range of species that use them, including turtles, frogs, salamanders, fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, fingernail (or “pill” or “pea”) clams, caddis flies and other aquatic insects.
Vernal pools provide a safer breeding ground for these species than permanent waters because there are no fish to eat the eggs or larvae.
Check out this great resource, the source of the above information:
Identifying and Documenting Vernal Pools in New Hampshire
https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/nongame/documents/vernal-pool-manual.pdf
