Sandhills Recon--Scouting Grassy Pond

Mission:  Frog scouting trip to the Sandhills Game Lands 2/24/2013
Departure Durham, Co. 3:00pm, ETA Scotland Co. @ 5:30pm .

Desitination: Grassy Pond (AKA 17 Frog Pond), a small Carolina bay within Longleaf Pine savannah habitat.

satellite image of Grassy Pond, a "Carolina bay"

Chase: Why a chase, versus a drive?  Time stands still for no man, nor beast for that matter, and for what it is worth, I see time slipping away, and events passing at every turn.  The early spring breeders will be done in but a few weeks, and timing the escape, the run with gear down a highway beyond,  can only happen when my moments of  freedom from responsibility overlap with conditions for sound, images, and those things wild.

sunset through pines, grass in foreground is the outer edge of the Carolina bay

Narrative: Down in Hoffman, NC after 5 PM, I was now racing the setting sun, the tall grass glowing golden --radiant, flowing through stately trunks, sunbeams sliced through the dark pillars of the Long Leaf Pine Savannah.  Tires swaying through sand roads in the old Expedition 4 x 4, splashing through the odd deep puddles, bouncing along, slightly hurried, hoping to capture more than frog and sound before nightfall. 

To document and better navigate I was using a little Pentax GPS camera.  GPS logging was turned on, and token documenting shots were happening at intersections and turnoffs.  It had been enough years since the last trip to make the last and most obscure turnoff a challenge.  There were 2 frantic 3-point turns made while watching the sun preparing to disappear, and the window for photos with it.  And finally the almost forgotten turnoff, was made as the truck effortlessly half climbed and pushed through the three foot high berm   which was separating an old jeep path from the bigger sand road.

Drought: It had been a good while since “Grassy Pond”  the “17 Frog Pond” had been anything resembling a pond. This shallow bowl, this small Carolina bay, has been grass, and dry grass at that, on the last few scouting trips, and the frog species count was reflective of that fact.  For a year or two there had been periods when one or two deeper holes, kept just enough water to be wet, but not last year, nor the year before that, and I’m not sure how long it’s been since the frogs were calling here, let alone the mythic 17 species of them. The last productive sound recording and photo trips happened for me in April 2005.

Southern Leopard Frog egg-masses 2-24-2013

Frog Sounds:Back to the salient points and observations, the glowing grass, and yes, the voice of a lone peeper, across the calm, and beneath that, the guttural clucking calls Southern Leopard Frogs!  All heard at more than a hundred  and fifty yards, where the charred tree trunks had fallen across a jeep path that used to lead closer. The setting sun slipped beneath the canopy of pine crowns, and blazed across the grass, which rolls across the hill which give this area its’ name "sandhills".  There was still some grayish light and reflections on puddle surfaces. Closer looks showed occasional movements of frogs fleeing the surface, and masses of dark gray eggs, which no doubt, are those of the clucking amphibian.

sunset @ Grassy Pond the "17 Frog Pond"

Photo Op: Some attempts at artsy shots with the normal lens set low on a tripod were made, back-lit long leaf pine saplings like green woolly pompoms with low sun glistening through them. There were close ups of grass tops, lit by sun, jumping out against the far shore or woods edge to the bay/ grassy pond perimeter.

Moving out to the area where the leopard frogs were calling, with the last rays still hitting the eastern pine canopies –the air was already noticeably cooler, -chilled in the center of the pond.  A waxing gibbous moon was rising through the silhouetted crowns of pine to the east.

As the moon rises, a soliloquy from a Bachman’s Sparrow.  From deep in shadows, beautiful varied song phases leaked out through the stillness. Military cargo planes, a flight of 3 in loose formation, circled repeatedly. They seemed to make the circuit every 20-30 minutes or so.  At one point a helicopter seemed to pause, somewhere too close, -- loud enough to stop tries at leopard frog sound.
The only 2 amphibian species calling were assemblages of Southern Leopard Frogs in the flooded grass, and slightly deeper puddles, and the ubiquitous Spring Peepers, though very few, and not too close.
The effort to record here was minimal, there were the transport planes circling, and other recordings of leopard frogs which seemed to have whatever might be obtained this night beaten.  None the less, the microphones, were placed on a tripod somewhat center to the chorus.  The recorder strap was hung on the tripod as well. and somewhere on the recording there is the sound of rubber boots sloshing, and then crunching through grass and distant woods.

Exploring--time, with the digital audio recorder running on the pond, just getting whatever is close at a preset "close enough" level, it was time to check some nearby ponds and wet spots which have provided frogs over the years. So off I hiked in the direction of Scotland Lake, a few spring peepers were heard to the south, but not consistently.  While temperatures had probably made it to the low 60s today, it was now in the mid 40s, and beyond that, it was getting quieter with the exception of aircraft sound.

Upon return the metering light which had been left on an hour ago, was clearly visible across the bay. There may be some decent Southern Leopard Frog audio captured, but it alone would not merit this trip.  The encouraging thing about this one, was the presence of at least some water, in Grassy Pond, and in two days a strong storm front with hopefully heavy rains is on its way.

Background:

 At this Grassy Pond, at this pond where 17 species have been noted – but never by me, there are at least for a time, 2 voices and now for a spell some water once again.

Back in 1998 or 1999, when I moved down to North Carolina from near Ithaca, NY, I knew, that there were different and more species of frogs to be found,  I’d come to meet a naturalist and birder in the triangle area, a Mr. Norman Budnitz. He offered to show me where this incredible pond was down in the sandhills.  It had been a while since he’d been there last, but he managed the turns through the pines on the sandy roads, some marked others not, but the frogs of Grassy Pond, had obviously left their mark in his memory, and I was glad for it.

The Truck: 1999 Ford Expedition 4 X 4 with 160K, It was the Eddie Bauer edition with moon roof, leather seats, and some extra noises. $2000 on Craiglist, and needing an immediate $675 in repairs, with others on hold.