I had occasion to be in the neighborhood, so I took a walk in Sapsucker Woods even though it was mid-afternoon and about 80°F, therefore very quiet in terms of birds. It was so summer-like that I heard my FOY Bullfrog calling, "Wawaron" (or "Ouaouaron," which is the Québécois term for the critter, in use since 1632, from the Huron "Ouaron"). The sound came from the green slimy pool on the west side of the Wilson Trail, north of the Sherwood Platform.
Continuing my walk on the east side of Sapsucker Woods I tried to sneak up on a singing Northern Waterthrush along the Woodleton Boardwalk. On Tuesday it took me 3 times looking for the bird before I saw it. Each time I approached, treading as silently as I could on the boards, it would shut up, invisibly leave, and sing from farther off, only to restart from close by as soon as I gave up and had neared the end of the boardwalk. Today I was determined to find it the first try. So I only glanced back briefly at a faint rustle in the leaves. And I didn't waver at all at the squeak and splash of a frog jumping into one of the swamp pools practically under my feet. But when the rustle became a Mink, diving smoothly into that same water and swimming, immersed, in tight circles and figure eights I was thoroughly distracted. Seconds later it leapt back onto a mossy hummock with its jaws clamped onto something nearly half its own size and thrashing. By the time I recognized the prey as a Bullfrog, the struggle was over. Frogs don't have much of a neck, but that's where the Mink knew to bite to dispatch it. When the frog lay still (except for the reflexive repositioning of a hind leg), the Mink let go and rubbed its face and neck on the moss, cleaning off slime, I think. Then it took the frog in its mouth again, got back in the water, and swam under me to the far side of the pool where it dropped the carcass for a minute (again the corpse made its legs more comfortable) before carrying it again over the uneven swamp terrain and out of sight, presumably to a hidden hungry family. I don't remember any birds on the rest of my walk, but I do recall looking down and seeing two more Bullfrogs sitting silently in the water, doing their best to imitate inanimate objects. Their days are numbered.
--Dave Nutter
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