Sunday, March 10, 2013

Spring or confused reptiles & amphibians?

It was hard to believe the weather forecast several days ago, but I guess it was right.  Yesterday was better than 60 degrees and today the same.  Sunny skies and warm weather, it seems like spring.

After being down and out with another cold I was looking for an excuse for a ride this afternoon.  The weather along was a good reason for a ride but I needed a destination.  I had a cycling magazine for Ryan so I decided to ride it to him, like an aluminum framed pony express rural delivery.

Across Valley and into the swamps I rode, turning on Messner.  As I started onto the long straight away with low lying swampy water on both sides of the road I confirmed KT's prediction.  She thought the warm weather these past two days combined with the overnight rain may bring some frogs out of hibernation.  She was right.

Is it spring or is this frog confused?

I spotted a leopard frog hopping across the road and halted his advance so I could take a picture.  (Full disclosure... I had no idea what kind of frog it was before KT told me after seeing the picture.)

Back on the bike, time to get rolling... ooooh, there's another frog and it's slimy black!

Ditched the bike and dropped to the
road for another froggy picture.

My ride continued and I pedaled the magazine to Ryan's house for delivery.  After visiting with him and Rylen for a little bit it was time to head back home with a tail wind.  I had been mostly into the wind on the way over.

I made my way back over to Messner to ride through the swamps again, wondering how many squished frogs I would find on the road.  In nearly the same place I encountered the frogs earlier I spotted a slow moving bump in the chip and seal.

A slow road crossing.

A turtle!  I used to have a turtle like this as a pet when I was a kid.  My bike was tossed into the ditch for the third time today while I snapped a few turtle pics.  I couldn't just leave him there to get thumped so I expedited his desire to be on the other side of the road.  It was quite a creature filled ride today.

You better pull back inside.  I hope you
have some mittens and a hat in there!

Is spring here?  No way, it's Ohio.  I'm sure there is some more snow to come.

No comments:

Post a Comment