There is one absolute certainty about August 2023 in the panhandle Florida area. It is hot, humid and by most standards generally unpleasant to intolerable during the middle of the day to the late evening if you stay out too long.
Granted, it is summer in Florida which is usually associated with beach weather and sultry temperatures, but 2023 is putting extra effort into the subtropical environment model.
Looking for a climatic reprieve for a few days I took off to northern Maine, flying into Bangor and traveling north to the lake region. I found what I was looking for as far as the temperature was concerned. Days were in the mid-70’s and nights a cool mid-to-upper 50’s.
Most of the plants and animals were familiar, but different. Not surprising since Maine gets plenty of snow and ice in the winter and north Florida may get a dusting of powdery snow once every 30 years.
The animal calls were different too. However, there was one summertime call which was immediately recognizable.
Bullfrogs inhabit the freshwater lakes of Maine, behaving much like their panhandle Florida cousins. Late summer is the prime time to hop to all the priority activities of these noisy amphibians. Eating and producing progeny are at the top of their list.
Bullfrogs, the large green amphibians with the coarse guttural vocalization, were present around the freshwater lakes.
In Maine the freshwater lakes are one of two varieties, either cold water or warm water. The warm water lakes are fed by surface water such as streams and rivers. Cold water lakes are fed primarily by springs.
To the bullfrogs it seems to make no difference as they were present in both. During the day their bass- fiddle voices would call out occasionally, and at night they were more energetic and regular in their pronouncements.
As in panhandle Florida, these denizens of watery regions are carnivorous. Maine’s climate provides plenty of hardy insects and very active summer arthropods for these bigmouthed members of the Lithobates genus to dine on.
Of course, there are mosquitoes and their larvae in the still waters of coves and isolated puddles in heavy shade. The stealthy frogs can hunt with little fear of becoming prey themselves.
Isolated ponds and backwaters are the perfect site to encounter bullfrogs in Maine. The quiet, still water is home to innumerable insects and other arthropods, all of which are on the bullfrog’s menu.
Another local amphibian delicacy not (fortunately) present in Florida are blackflies. These tiny, all black aerial insects frequent any locale where they can take a quick bite, literally, from any unsuspecting subject with blood.
The opportunistic bullfrogs also eat a variety of waterborne creatures which inhabit the region. Worms, small leeches, other frogs and many more critters can become the snack of the moment.
As with most creatures in the wild, there is always something that eats them, and bullfrogs are no different. The predator list is somewhat different in Maine than in Florida.
Human consumption of bullfrogs is far more popular in the south than in Maine. Maybe with lobster so readily available, frog legs were only considered by a very few up north.
Maine has no alligators outside zoos and very few snakes, so predation from these is a nonissue. Birds, however, are plentiful in the summer and plenty reside in the lakesides.
Ducks, loons, kingfishers and many more have developed a taste for these green residents. Small, developing bullfrogs are especially suspectable.
Fortunately, with a high reproduction rate the bullfrogs can overcome the attrition from avian residents and migrant species.
When the cool and cold season arrives in a few months, these resilient frogs find an isolated and insulated spot to sleep the winter away. Their blood has a chemical which prevents the bullfrog from freezing at the same temperature as water.
Florida bullfrogs rarely have to use the natural “antifreeze” and spend the relatively warm winters swimming and hunting. It is truly a wonder more bullfrogs from Maine don’t move to Florida.
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