Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
dirtgirl_wt

amphibians in winter

dirtgirl
17 years ago

Well, winter-or at least winter cold - has finally come to visit here in So Illinois. There's still been no snow, and thankfully none of the ice that plagued our neighbors to the west. The sunshine is deceptive...with the wind chill it's right about 3 degrees F outside. I put out fresh water for the birds and it was slushing over after 15 minutes--and it's out of the wind!

All this has me thinking about the eggs in the first ditch. I imagine a bunch of shivering little embryos! I was crossing the first slough about a week ago as was shocked to see little clumps of eggs on the plant stems...the amphibians have been at it already here. Come to think of it, we did have a salamander on the garage steps a few weeks ago, but there just seems to be something wrong with the notion of something like that strolling around in the middle of January.

The story here is much the same as other places I have seen in the news...our winters temps on average are something like 20 degrees above normal. With the exception of the few artic fronts that have blasted through, we are staying in the upper 40s much of the time. Moths at the porch light are common anymore.

Call me crazy but I wouldn't mind some snow. I love certain things about all the seasons and it seems like we are just going from fall right into spring anymore.

Comments (3)