The Quick and the Dead
Phenology – “a branch of science concerned with the relationship between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as the migration of birds or the flowering and fruiting of plants).”
Lurking in the Reeds
Do you see the frog? Look closely. There it is, right in the center of the photo! It’s sitting motionless on some fallen cattail leaves at the edge of the pond. This is no surprise. Frogs are always sitting motionless on cattail leaves at the edge of the pond. I’ve often watched them for ten minutes or more, just waiting for them to make the smallest motion to indicate that they are alive.
July 29, 2016, noon, 80 degrees, mostly cloudy. The pond was quiet today, broken only occasionally by the splash of a trout. A bullfrog sat in the exact same spot by the dock where I took a picture of him or one of his pals yesterday. A pair of small green frogs squatted with just their noses out of the water, one of them hiding under a leaf. A half hour went by before a frog on the other side of the pond broke the silence.
What are they doing sitting there, so motionless, for so long? Well, they might be resting, thinking about life in the pond, or waiting to join in a chorus along with the many other frogs sitting quietly along the edge of the pond. But sometimes they are like hunters in their deer stands, silently waiting for an opportunity to strike.
How to Catch a Damselfly
More than 25 years ago, during my second summer in Sugar Hill, I witnessed a frog catching and eating a damselfly, an unusual and unexpected experience that I described in detail in my journal.
August 2-3, 1998. Blue damsel flies were again emerging from the pond. About fifty at the point and one or two hundred nearby along the shore. I watched a small green frog hunting them. He sat low in the water with his head out, waiting for a bluet to alight within range, which is only about two inches. The bluets characteristically sit on goldenrod or any other exposed vegetation for at least ten or twenty seconds, so if they land on anything within the frog’s range, they are goners. The frog sees the bluet land, waits a second, twitching slightly in anticipation, then springs very quickly and grabs the damsel fly in its mouth! The tip of the bluet’s abdomen is visible sticking out the side of the frog’s mouth as it chews for a while, and then it gulps that bit down as well. I saw this once yesterday after watching for 45 minutes and once again today after watching for a half hour. The frogs moved every 5 minutes or so until they got a strike. They didn’t seem to know to locate head-on to a suitable landing perch.
Back then, before I had a digital camera, I would add illustrations to my journals. This one shows the frog sitting with its nose out of the water at the moment when the bluet landed on a bit of pondweed sticking out just within reach.
I didn’t know then how lucky I was to witness this activity, because I didn’t witness another successful strike that summer or in any summer for the next 25 years! I have several times seen a frog leap up in unsuccessful attempts to catch a meadowhawk bouncing up and down as it laid eggs on the surface of the pond right next to where the frog was waiting. But I have never again seen a frog leap out to catch any damselfly or dragonfly in its mouth. At least, not until last week.
Luck Plays a Very Important Role
Now that I have learned to love dragonflies, damselflies, and butterflies, I seldom find myself sitting still for a half hour waiting for a frog to move. Almost every sunny day, I spend an hour or so walking around the pond and the Upper Meadow hoping to get photos of these insects that are so much more colorful and interesting than the stolid, drab frogs.
One day last week, I was sitting as usual on the dock at our end of the pond watching the damselflies and dragonflies flying about the opening in the cattails, defending their territories, looking for mates, forming wheels, and sometimes resting briefly on one of the cattails. A Canada darner stopped by every minute or two, hovered for a few seconds, shifted position, and hovered again before flying off to the next opening in the cattails. Canada darners almost never land anywhere, and they are even less likely to land anywhere near the pond. Since they are unwilling to pose, if I want a photo, I have to focus on an area where one has hovered and wait to take the picture if it returns. This is a difficult task, but I sometimes accept the challenge. Well, last week, I took a dozen or so photos, almost all of which were either out of focus or taken just after the dragonfly sped off. The best one turned out to be one that I accidentally took of the insect’s shadow. Except for what happed very soon thereafter, I would have shrugged and deleted this photo along with all of the other failures.
August 23, 2024, 4:45pm. I tried to get a good photo of a Canada darner that hovered over our end of the pond, but the best photo turned out to be of its shadow.
Just after I took this photo, another Canada darner flew in, a member of the opposite sex. Apparently this is what they both had been searching for. Because they immediately paired up, prepared to form a wheel, and dropped down to a romantic spot at the edge of the cattails. Unluckily for them, they did not see the frog sitting there, and they landed almost on the lucky frog’s nose. The frog immediately grabbed one of the dragonflies, while the other one escaped. Luckily for me, I already had the camera in hand, ready to document what happened next.
August 23, 2024, 4:47pm. The pair of Canada darners landed right in front of the frog that had been waiting there, motionless and barely visible, probably for many minutes. The wings of the dragonfly and the eyes of the frog are visible in the center of this photo.
How to Consume a Dragonfly
In my 1998 drawing of the bluet that became a frog’s lunch, you will notice that its wings are folded in next to its abdomen. The frog grabbed the insect just as we could bite into the center of a large pretzel stick - the insect’s wings posed no problems. Dragonflies are a different matter, as their wings are larger, stiffer, and extended. The frog has to twist and turn the darner in order to get it into its mouth, just as we used to twist and turn one of the large regular pretzels that we purchased from a vendor in the Public Garden or the Boston Garden.
August 23, 2024, 4:48 pm. The frog has the darner’s head and thorax in its mouth, but the insect’s abdomen is not headed straight it, and the wings are a problem.
It took the frog a couple of minutes to get the darner lined up so that it could be swallowed. The action had slowed down, so I was able to take videos of the process. For a few seconds, the dragonfly twitched its abdomen, in a futile effort to escape. The frog just held on at first, but soon began pulling the wings out of its mouth.
August 23, 2024, 4:49. The frog pulls one of the darner’s wings out of its mouth.
Once the frog got rid of the wings, it manipulated the darner so that it could be swallowed.
August 23, 2024, 4:50. The frog pulls the darner out a bit in order to line it up better.
Once the darner was lined up properly, the frog sucked it in slowly, and the tip of the darner’s abdomen eventually disappeared into the frog’s mouth. Once it had the darner entirely within its mouth, the frog sat with its head up for several minutes, its throat clearly pushing in and out more than fifty times as it worked on its meal.
August 23, 2024, 4:52. The frog chews for a couple of minutes, its throat pushing in and out again, again, and again.
I took two minutes of videos as the frog worked on its meal. Finally, and quite suddenly, the frog lifted its head straight up and it swallowed whatever was left of the dragonfly.
August 23, 2024, 4:54. The frog suddenly throws its head straight up and swallows the remains of its meal.
After six minutes of dining, what did the frog do? Why, it shifted its position by a few inches and went back to sitting there, motionless and silent. We don’t know if it was hoping for another course for its evening meal or simply enjoying the happy life of a frog.
August 23, 2024, 4:59. Finished with its meal, the frog moves a few inches and resumes its normal position.
