Frog Watching at Rouge Park

(C) Christine McCann

My family is proud to officially be Rouge Park volunteers!  Bill and I believe it is important for our daughters to be involved in volunteering in our community in some way and we all feel Rouge Park is a very meaningful cause.  We want to be a part of keeping our precious green spaces green. 

I assumed signing up as a volunteer would mean we would help pick up litter in the park, plant some trees, post some signs, that kind of thing.  It turns out being a volunteer can entail so much more! 

Sheryl Santos, Stewardship Coordinator, asked if we would be interested in frog watching.  I was hesitant at first because my girls are only five and seven, but after discussing it with them we decided to give it a try.  My eldest daughter is also learning about amphibians in school, so the conversation was quite timely.

We went to our first workshop Wednesday evening at the Toronto Zoo’s Operations Complex.  The volunteers were placed in groups of about six to eight people.  Our group’s leader is a friendly, knowledgeable man who all of us warmed to right away. 

During the meeting we watched a detailed and entertaining slide show discussing the frogs we will hopefully encounter while frog watching, including their appearance and their specific calls.  I was surprised to find out there are over ten species of frogs and toads in Ontario and that each of their calls are quite distinct.

We were each given an information package which included a CD titled Ontario Frog and Toad Calls. This CD is surprisingly addictive!  It is narrated by four young girls and they discuss the different frog calls and then present each call.  We have been listening to the CD in the car since our drive back from the meeting and we are getting pretty good at recognizing the individual calls.  The Spring Peeper is our favourite! 

Our first attempt at frog watching will be in May and we are pretty excited about it.  We will meet at dusk and visit each of our three designated sites once the sun has completely set.  We only record the calls for a period of three minutes, much shorter than I would have thought, but apparently enough time to get a good sampling of the frogs in the area.  We are to record air temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, wind scale and background noise on the Frogwatch Observation Form provided at the workshop . 

We can also frog watch on our own by entering the data on the Frog Watch Ontario website.  So while we may not be able to make all the Frog Watching evenings scheduled, this is another fun activity our family can participate in during our much-loved nature walks.