About 30 people gathered Saturday March 21 evening at the Leslee Niethammer Saline River Preserve to learn about spring peeper frogs and listen for one of the earliest sounds of spring.
The event, hosted by Friends of the Saline River, was led by Josh Kofflin and Amy Tesolin, who guided attendees along damp trails and near vernal ponds as dusk settled over the preserve.
Kofflin and Tesolin told the group the program was part of a broader effort to help more people become familiar with the preserve and what it offers.
“The main point of having these educational programs is to see what the preserve is about,” Kofflin said. “A lot of people aren’t even familiar with it.”
He said Friends of the Saline River plans to offer programs every other month this year, instead of only holding a few events each year.
The next planned program will be a May 9 bird event at the preserve connected to Global Bird Day, a worldwide birding effort.
Before the hike, Kofflin and Tesolin talked with participants about frog species found in Michigan, the role amphibians play in showing the health of an ecosystem and the importance of vernal pools, the shallow seasonal wetlands where many amphibians breed.
As the light faded, the group moved through the preserve, stopping often to listen. Along the way, participants heard birds including American robins and Canada geese, watched ducks and geese flying overhead, spotted fungus growing on fallen wood, examined animal tracks and animal trails in the mud and passed signs of beaver activity near the water, including dams and tracks along the bank.
The peepers were quiet at first on the chilly evening, but near the end of the walk, participants began to hear the small frogs calling.
“Glad we heard some chorus frogs and peepers at the end!” Tesolin said afterward.
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