Who Uses the Benches at Lathrop

By Barbara Walvoord

Originally published in the Lathrop Lamp Post for Sept. 21-27, 2019

Recently, both campuses have added and upgraded benches along our trails, so hikers can rest or enjoy the view.  But other Lathrop residents use the benches, too.  A woodchuck dug a home under one of our east campus benches.  And on the north campus, in August, Dale LaBonte found this tree frog enjoying a bench’s metal arm rest, whether because it was cool, it was warm, or it was damp, we don’t quite know.

Our tree frog’s sticky toe pads helped it climb onto the metal arm rest, as well as other surfaces.  It spends the day resting on a branch and comes out at night to jump nimbly around in the trees and shrubs, catching moths, tree crickets, ants, flies, grasshoppers, and beetles.

Maybe our arm-rest tree frog is a late breeder—August is the end of their summer breeding season.  During breeding, males gather in the trees and shrubs around a pond or stream like boys around the

“I’m Freezing!”–Literally

by Barbara Walvoord

(From Lathrop Lamp Post Feb. 9, 2017)

Sharon and I found this wood frog on November 16, on the east campus wide woods path. near two of Lathrop’s vernal pools (see trail maps of both campuses at https://lathropland.wordpress.com/trail-map-easthampton/) .

Yikes!  What is this tender little creature doing now that its world is all frozen?

It’s hunkered down in the leaf litter–frozen.  Its heartbeat and breathing have stopped. A special antifreeze keeps its cells from freezing, but  ice has formed between its cells.

In early spring,  our wood frog will thaw out, emerge from the leaf litter, start eating slugs, worms, bugs, and snails, and, if it’s not picked off by some snake, turtle, raccoon, coyote, fox, or bird, go find the vernal pool it was born in.  Though a vernal pool, by definition, has no streams running into and out of it, it fills up in spring with snow melt, rain, and ground water, just in time for frogs to mate.

Kissing Frogs at Lathrop

by Barbara Walvoord

Frogs have gotten a bad name for being the ugliest, most disgusting form that a witch could think of, to disguise a prince. And kissing a frog, it seems, is the ultimate yukky challenge for a princess.

Sharon and I found this American bullfrog by Basset Brook on the east campus. It did not swim away, but regarded us steadily with its big, beady eyes.

We did not kiss it, but I did go on the web to find out more about this creature who shares our Lathrop home.

Perhaps what disgusts a princess most is this frog’s table manners.