Return to Soren's Pond

Well, I'm back. With an unexpected trip to Santa Barbara followed by a reunion in Las Vegas, old Bob hasn't been playing junior naturalist, lately, until yesterday. Yesterday, I was in my glory once again, crawling around in the weeds trying to get a better look at the frogs of Soren's Pond.

As I approached the pond, I could hear the throaty call of large frogs. My pulse quickened.

Like last time, I could never see a frog on the shore because they would dive in before I could get within 50 feet of them. I would hear a squawk just as they hit the water. I stealthily circled the pond, taking about an hour, even crawling on my belly through the weeds in places. Not one sighting! I finally went back to a promising area, made myself small, and waited in a frozen position for about 45 minutes. My patience paid off. One at a time a large frog would rise to the surface far from shore and just hang in the water scoping out his surroundings.

The truth was revealed. These were not the endangerd Red Leg Frogs of Mark Twain legend, but the invader Bull Frogs from east of the Rockies. The two cannot coexist for long, as Bull Frogs devour everything from frogs to birds. Their bodies alone can reach 8 inches in length.

Well, it was time to leave and climb back up to the ridge and eat lunch. I spotted a large racer, I believe, but I was no match for it in the tall grass. As I ate my lunch on the top of the ridge, luxuriating in the sun on a bench with a view, I noticed a small caterpillar on my pack that had a perfect camouflage for living on twigs. I placed it on an oak twig, and it pressed itself flat, rendering itself invisible. Unfortunately, none of my pictures came out in focus, but I will include two anyway.

In the first picture below, the caterpillar is on the last half of the twig's right end.

Here, it is crawling off the twig.

My next stop would be an almost inaccessible part of Marie Creek where I spotted a great number of Yellow Leg Frogs on one occasion two years ago about the same time of the year. Despite a number of returns, I have never seen another one since. Amphibians can seem to disappear for even years at a time until the right conditions return. On this day, I found no frogs in this ravine gaurded by fallen trees, a steep bank, blackberry vines, and nettles.

My adventure was almost over as I returned back to the trailhead on Buckeye Trail. Almost over, because lying on the trail was a beautiful juvenile Gopher Snake. As luck would have it, my camera batteries were now dead, having kept the camera on and ready for almost two hours at Soren's Pond. It was still a nice way to finish a beautiful day in the hills. See you next time!