At the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge the summer drought has been rather severe! The great marsh is reduced to dampness and the little stream that cuts across it. The water birds are congregating unnaturally. There are clusters of egrets and herons. TC spotted a pair of glossy ibises the other evening. She also saw a great blue heron catch and attempt to gobble down a rather large northern water snake. The event ended in regurgitation!

At the other end of the food chain, the frogs are clustered into what pools remain. In Figure1 an American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) stares out at me pleafully. “It is not easy being green!”

BUT… One is certainly reminded nostalgically of Mark Twain’s “Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “You never see a frog so modest and straightforward as he was, for all he was so gifted.“