JIM CONRAD’S NATURALIST NEWSLETTER
Written and issued at the woods edge near Natchez,
Mississippi
June 30, 2008
*****
TREEFROG DAYS
During most of last week each afternoon our very hot,
humid air grew so unstable that thunderstorms broke
out all around us. If you were in a car you’d travel
into and out of brief downpours while most of the
landscape never got a drop. During the whole week we
just received one good rain at my camp.
With all this storm activity the treefrogs around my
porch next to the woods were in their element. Often
during the day for no apparent reason a chorus of them
would break out calling. Other times they’d be set off
by sudden claps of thunder, or even by my scraping the
chair on my floor as I got up from the computer. Once
I even set off a chorus by issuing a healthy hermit
fart.
Basically I live on my open porch, using my attached
smaller trailer just as a library. I haven’t bothered
removing the trailer’s window coverings, which can be
tilted up to make simple awnings. In the dark, moist
spaces beneath those coverings, that’s where treefrogs
like to hold out during the day between rains. You can
see a frog photographed when I lifted a covering up at
http://www.backyardnature.net
