![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/MountsbergPaintedTurtleonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThere were several small Painted Turtles sunning near the Visitor’s Centre<\/em>.<\/p>\n According to the staff, a pair of Canada Geese is using the old Osprey nest and the just-returned Ospreys are furious. This goose was playing it safe and nesting on the ground.<\/p>\n At the start of the trail, Grackles were calling from several of the trees.<\/p>\n Male and female Red Winged Blackbirds were also calling and exploring the old rushes.<\/p>\n Either the Blue Jays kept following me around the trail or there were several small groups of Jays that day.<\/p>\n A pair of Kingfishers were calling and keeping an eye on me near a small creek. This is the female.<\/p>\n Throughout the walk, I could hear various types of frogs calling from the wetlands and temporary pools. The Wood Frogs were making duck-like quacks. One group of them was so intent on perpetuating the species that they didn’t even move away when I was only a few feet from them.<\/p>\n It’s a good thing that frogs don’t need to breathe only air or the female underneath this pile might be gasping.<\/p>\n Along the long straight road section of the trail returning towards the reservoir were some drier patches. Coltsfoot was in bloom and many insects were taking advantage of this welcome food source.<\/p>\n Both Mourning Cloak butterflies and<\/p>\n Commas were patrolling territories along the road and basking periodically.<\/p>\n As well as classes of high school students, I soon encountered a large group of Wood Frogs. I believe that this is a male waiting for the approach of a receptive female.<\/p>\n These are probably frogs eggs given the large numbers of frogs calling and resting in the area and the absence of any toads.Wood frogs, the most likely suspects, are said to lay their eggs in attached masses like this.<\/p>\n There were several interesting types of water insects busily hunting and foraging while I was trying to find the other kinds of frogs to get photos. This giant diving beetle was very active and as large as the first joint of my thumb.<\/p>\n This male Downy landed on a drowned tree stump in front of me oblivious to all of the insect life swirling around in the water near its feet.<\/p>\n Near the reservoir I looked up to see three raptors circling. I didn’t have time to get a good photo but<\/p>\n you can see at least 2 of them were Ospreys.<\/p>\n The newly arrived Tree Swallows were more cooperative. They were perching on some of the dozens of nesting boxes in Swallow Town although I don’t think they’ve been back long enough to start using them.<\/p>\n Overall, it was a very pleasant day to ramble through the woods and fields!<\/p>\n Related Reading Join In<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I met creatures from every major group on a ramble around Mountsberg, although I didn’t get any images worth sharing of the fish or mammals. I hope these photos bring back your own memories of spring walks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rambles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3256"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3262,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions\/3262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nHave you been out for a spring walk yet? Any frogs calling in your neck of the woods? Please share your finds with a comment.<\/p>\n