Night in the Swamp

Hobcaw Barony,

March 2, 2024,

6:30 PM, 60° F,

Partly cloudy, previous rain 3/1

We headed out at sunset to Hobcaw Barony to see if the spring frogs were singing yet. It was a beautiful, mild night, and the mosquitos didn’t seem to be too thick yet.

There is one particular wetland area that we call the ‘vernal pool’ that is a favorite of ours to visit. It is a fairly small (about 1/2 acre), mostly open grassy area with a few bald cypress and a deep alligator hole. I have seen become completely dry, but lately it has been holding pretty high water. On this night it was about up to my knees.

We did find a few frogs. In fact, the found the smallest frog of all. The little grass frog is the smallest frog in North America at just 0.5 to 0.75 inches. They like to hang out down in the grassy areas near bogs or ponds, often associated with pine savannas. Although almost impossible to find, they are easy to hear, with an impressively loud, insect like call.

Little Grass Frog, Pseudacris ocularis

Sometime the best way to find frogs (and snakes) is to cruise along the road at night, watching carefully in the headlights. Then someone spots one and yells, “FROG!”, the car is braked, and everyone jumps out with their nets, headlamps and cameras.

Southern Leopard Frog, Lithobates sphenocephalus.

This time it was a southern leopard frog caught in the lights. They are excellent jumpers, and this one tool some effort to catch. They have a very distinctive call that sounds a little like a cackle and a little like a balloon being rubbed.

Eastern Spadefood, Scaphiopus holbrookii.

This one was a rare and exciting find. The eastern spade foot is able to survive for months underground in a torpid state. They emerge at night after heavy rainfalls to breed and feed on insects and other invertebrates, but otherwise are rarely seen. If you do find one, be cautious handling it as they do produce a skin secretion that can cause an allergic reaction in some people.

Here you can see on the hind feet the keratinized black spade that allows the frog to burrow into loose soil. They kind of rock and wiggle their way down, rear-end first.

We always find many crawfish while dip netting in the ditches and swamps, but I have never seen one with a little yellow cap-looking thing like this before. I am guessing it is some sort of parasite, but couldn’t find anything that looked like it on the web.

Six-spotted Fishing Spider, Dolomedes triton

And of course there are plenty of spiders. It is amazing just how many spider eyes and webs are lit up by the flashlight at night; you don’t realize how many there are all around you during the day.

And if the spider situation described above does not creep you out, here is what I think is a good still frame from a swamp horror movie. Actually it is just the boys walking toward me with their headlamps on, and swamps are not