Wood Frog

An update on my daughter who was in the hospital for a few days. She was allowed to go home three evenings ago, though the medical staff still aren't completely sure of the cause of the problem. She has a follow-up appointment in September, so hopefully she and we will know more at that time. Meanwhile, I feel totally drained, ha!

A couple of days ago, on 25 August, 10 of us arrived at a friend's house, ready to go north of Calgary to near Sundre, for a few hours of botanizing, This was the second visit to Judy Osborne's for a few of us, me included. The previous trip was on 30 June 2015. By now, of course, a lot of the wildflowers are finished, but I found enough other things to photograph, including a distant, beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, a Wood Frog and a Yellowjacket (wasp), plus a few of the plants in my friends' garden at the beginning and end of the day. No scenery shots, as the visibility was so bad due to the smoke. There was nothing I could do about the single blade of grass that goes right across the Wood Frog's face. If I had tried to move it with my hiking pole, you know what the frog would have done : )

"Similar to other northern frogs that enter dormancy close to the surface in soil and/or leaf litter, wood frogs can tolerate the freezing of their blood and other tissues. Urea is accumulated in tissues in preparation for overwintering, and liver glycogen is converted in large quantities to glucose in response to internal ice formation. Both urea and glucose act as cryoprotectants to limit the amount of ice that forms and to reduce osmotic shrinkage of cells. Frogs can survive many freeze/thaw events during winter if no more than about 65% of the total body water freezes." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_frog

Thanks so much, Judy, for having us out on your beautiful property again. It was a most enjoyable day, despite the dreadful, smoke-filled air (from forest fires burning in Washington State, northwest US). We look forward to being out there again next year! Many thanks, too, to Barry, who drove a few of us out there and back to Calgary. A long, long drive and it was much appreciated!