Day 23: Night Time is the Right Time

After another fruitless survey at a northern lake, I sat down to work on my research paper in the Conservation Science Training Center. The chairs are the most comfortable around and it is the perfect place to get down to the business of writing up some science.

As I am getting underway, a fellow vet student comes in a politely pleads with Brian and myself to join her for a night time frog survey. Being the gentlemen that we are, only a moderate amount of bribery was required to enlist our help. It is difficult to resist helping when beer and cookies are the reward.

I borrow a head lamp from one of my cabin mates and load up my chest waders. The night survey of the wetlands is about to begin. I have been told that the night time is the best chance to catch a frog. When the spotlight goes into their eyes you can just pick them right up. I started out the survey hoping this was the truth.

When we reached the parking lot, there was a orgy of frog activity surrounding a nearby puddle. I could not resist the chance despite the frog calls indicating that it was not a species we were in search of currently. Down to my knees, I spotted a frog. I slowly approached on all fours. A quick dive with both hands leading the way and he was all mine.

Highlight: I rose with a tree frog firmly grasped between my palms. He was small compared to the green frogs, but a frog is a frog. Perhaps tree frogs are less evil than other types.

After releasing him, we began our actual survey. The wetlands area that was selected for the night had reeds which grew tall enough to obscure my view. Moonlight obscured the beam sent from my tiny headlamp. I was crouched low with every step scanning the ankle deep waters at the base of the reeds for flashing eyes or green skin.

Lowlight: Being so focused on the reeds directly in front of me, I lost sight of the big picture. This lead me to lose my balance and fall into a channel which was chest deep on me. The sloshing of the water as I regained my balance soaked by shirt but did not fill up my chest waders.

The channel's water level put me in a prospective which would be perfect for the frog search so I decided to stay. While wading slowly upstream, something large moved under my foot. Shortly after something slammed into my leg. Not hard enough to knock me off balance but hard enough to freak me out.

At this point I began writing a mental list of things a person wading chest deep in turbid waters at eleven o'clock at night should not think about...

• Alligators like wetlands. Maybe someone released a pet alligator here. 
• I saw a snapping turtle bite through a stick. I'm pretty sure that my waders are not as strong as a stick
• Northern Water snakes are "very aggressive" snakes. Do you think they hunt at night?
• Every episode of 'River Monsters' ever made features stories about people doing questionable things in the middle of the night. This seems fairly questionable.

When we finally called the survey for the night, I was empty handed. Thinking back to the tree frog I managed to capture earlier in the evening, I heard the words of the immortal Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want..."