TWINS 2009: A Tale of Two Frogs….

A Tale of Two Frogs….

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…

Back at the culmination of our journey up the Tennessee River System, we found our favorite anchorage at the end of the Little Tennessee and Tellico Lake, mm-28.5 LDB.

Our best friends (Wisemans) had just joined us at Tellico Marina (a nice stop) andwe had headed back to the anchorage across from the folded rock bluff for ourfirst evening at anchor. My logindicates this was the end of July.

The next morning we were visited by two newborn tree frogs. Twins I’m sure, the size of a thumbnail! One on the railing that I took closeup pictures of and another found later on the top of our window frame. There was discussion of where they might have come from since were well off the riverbank. There was also concern expressed by the ladies about getting them back to shore. They were found on the boat, for the next day or so at different places….and then they disappeared….or so we thought.

Opening one of our hatches recently I was chagrin to find the small shape of a dehydrated frog. Apparently trapped by the hatch it had hidden under, I now knew the fate of one of the tree frogs. (Identified through careful internet searching, where the adult is a pretty bright green, almost fluorescent frog) .This death was taken with the recent news perspective by a talking head that 2/3 of the world’s frogs could be lost during our lifetime….shameless environmental plug intended.

Last week during a quick stop at Goose Pond, I was moving things around in the dingy and jumped when suddenly another frog appeared. Yes, an adult climbing tree frog, large and healthy….I’m guessing well fed on the spiders in the dingy. But, alas when I roughly searched the dingy later it could not be found. Yesterday, again the dingy was totally cleaned out and washed….all sand down the drain….and no frog. Half the mystery continued.

This morning I was finishing nearly the worst job on a boat I’m sure…..a cracked fitting on the discharge side of the vaccuflush pump above the holding tank. What a horrid mess. After round one cleaning up the disaster, I decided to give it another flush with bleach and pine sol and retrieved the bucket on the aft cockpit…..and here was my cute tree frog hiding at the bottom. I now have pictures of the adult after I coaxed her out of the bucket. (Still an unnamed pet by the way)

I must say that this little saga of our twin frogs has been interesting. Who has pet frogs on the boat? Most of this gal’s life was spent on a boat! She was carefully captured between two cups and dingied to shore at Joe Wheeler State Park, close enough to the Marina to catch the rendezvous and pick another boat if that’s the life she chooses. A culture shock I’m sure, being marooned to dirt after life on the water.

The natural perspectives from the water are wonderful. Schools of predator fish jumping like Piranha’s. A deer with fawns down by the water walking along the shoreline. Bald eagles soaring along the river. Osprey scooping a fish from the water. Egrets. Canadian geese migrating south. An owl hooting in the morning. Blue Herons squalking at you on the corners of the coves. Green herons. Turtles lined up on logs. Oh, there’s another tow. One just never knows what’s around the next bend.