SPOOOKY! Trees, Larks, Merlins and Frogs!

Do you dig the new Halloween look for the blog? Very scary.

Anyway, nothing too thrilling to sing (or report) about here on the old blog today. So I'll get started with the inane blah blah.

1.) We, the Annapolis Environmental Commission, gave away 200 trees to City of Annapolis residents this past Saturday morning. It was a huge success. White Fringe Trees, Serviceberries, Dogwoods, American Hollies, Sycamores and even White Oaks were part of the mix. Enjoy some crappy iPhone photos.2.) I saw some HORNED LARK in Howard County at Western Regional Park on Sunday morning. Whopdee do. Enjoy a photo.3.) I finished the day with a chance meeting with a MERLIN at Greenbury Point in Annapolis. Enjoy some photos.I feel a bit like Columbo here, but uh... one more thing. I ran into some cool amphibians too on Greenbury Point. An EASTERN SPADEFOOT and a BULLFROG. You can guess what's next right? Wrong. Before you enjoy some photos, a lesson about the Eastern Spadefoot, courtesy of Bill Hubick.

In a recent email, the freshly-married Bill wrote, "EXCELLENT find on the Eastern Spadefoot. I just finally found my first ones on the western shore this past summer, and they happened to be in southern Anne Arundel. Yours was the closest one to home I've heard about, and it's great to hear they're still out there at Greenbury--yet another reason to take care of the place. Spadefoots are interesting because they are subterranean so much of the time (usually except right after rains), so it's hard telling if my lack of western shore finds is more to do with actual numbers or well-timed looking. Either way, I'm sure the conversion of the majority of agricultural land has drastically reduced range and numbers on the western shore in the last 30 years. Great find and well done."

Oh, and now... enjoy some photos!Sadly, these days, it, "Ain't Easy Being Green."
Good (frightful) birding (and amphibianing)!

Dan