Western Chorus Frogs are one of the earliest breeders in the marsh
Photo credit: By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (Western Chorus FrogUploaded by Dolovis) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons |
Monitoring begins in mid April when the frogs first start to sing and lasts until the end of May (depending on the weather). This is great way for high school kids to accumulate community hours. It is also a great way to bond with younger children by accompanying them on the monitoring which is scheduled for early evening twice a week.
The Frog Watch programme provides important information to us as we continue to monitor the overall health of the Marsh and involves students from the Schomberg Public School in the life of the Marsh. Students collect data during their excursions to the Marsh, and this information is used in a number of classroom situations, including biology, math and health. A zipped file containing all of the frog calls (for reference) is available here. It's about 4.3 MB. Unzip the file and burn the audio tracks to a CD or download them to your iPod. If you go the iPod route, the frog sounds will show up under the Artist 'Dufferin Marsh'. Click here to learn more about frog species that might be heard or observed in the Dufferin Marsh. If you're interested in participating, we'll be holding a training and information session at the Grackle Coffee Company (on Main St Schomberg) in early April. Stay tuned for details. |