Tobico Marsh

Wednesday, June 22nd, as soon as Kay left our campsite in Clare, I headed out towards Lake Huron and the Bay City Recreation Area. Van was feeling a little down, so I decided to give him a boost. While Van was sucking up the electricity at our temporary campsite, I decided to go exploring in the Tobico Marsh. The marsh is one of the largest freshwater coastal wetlands on the Great Lakes. I had been there plenty of times, exploring its trails and watching the migratory birds. This time I was on a different mission...to take a picture of a frog.

I've heard plenty of frogs and toads when I go out to survey at night, but I've never been able to take a picture of one. It was kind of embarrassing, I had a Frog and Toad page on my website, but the only frog I could find to feature, was a ceramic frog received as a gift. After several hours of wandering around on the marsh trails, hearing frogs in the distance, I was ready to give up. As I walked out on an observation deck to take one last look around, I heard a loud "boing", like the sound of a banjo string. Sitting at my feet, on a pile of reeds, looking straight into my eyes, was a Green Frog!

Slowly, I leaned over the railing of the deck and took a picture. He didn't move. Kneeling down, I continued to shoot. He didn't even blink. I crawled on my belly to the edge of the deck, right above the frog and kept shooting. I kept telling him, "Your skin is going to dry out, you need to get back in the water", but he didn't move. Finally, after taking tons of pictures in a lot of settings, (so I wouldn't blow my frog picture chance), I thanked the little frog, brushed myself off and headed, triumphantly, back to Van.