An Unexpected Guest

You can see how tiny the spring peeper is in this photograph.

We found an unexpected visitor in the yard last week. A tiny spring peeper was hopping by! This kind of frog is hard to find in the fall, which made its visit even more exciting.

Recognizing a Spring Peeper
Spring peepers are tiny frogs. They are usually no bigger than your thumb! Spring peepers do not have webbed feet, like many swimming frogs. Instead, they have large toe pads which help them to climb. When I looked at this frog closely, the real sign of its identify was the faint "X" marked on its back. Spring peepers are known for this kind of marking.

Spring Peepers in the Autumn
Spring peepers are easy to find in the spring. If you live near a pond, their noise might be deafening! In the fall, they are harder to find. But fall is an interesting time for these creatures as well. The peepers are looking for food so that they can get ready to hibernate for the winter.

Spring peepers hibernate under rotting logs, or even behind loose bark on trees. Like some other reptiles and amphibians, spring peepers can actually stand being frozen. How amazing!

So, although it's a season in which I don't usually think about spring peepers, I have to thank this little guy for stopping by.

Here you can see the "X" marked on the frog's back.

A Poem: Combine Crewcut

Last week, as I was driving, I happened to pass a combine cutting corn from a field. It looked for all the world as if the combine was trimming the cornfield's hair! It inspired me to write this poem:

Combine Crewcut
The cornfield got a crewcut
Tall stalks trimmed by combine clippers
Taking some off the sides, the back, the front
Leaving a stubble of stalk stumps.


Except, in one forgotten spot,
A place where two scraggly stalks
Stick up, cowlick straight, toward the sky...


The cornfield got a crewcut
New hairstyle for the fall.

What do you think? Have you ever seen a cornfield, a lawn, or a meadow being mowed? Can you imagine thinking about it like a haircut?