Hi Celia,
TTs are soon coming to an end. I'm still out there cleaning up the course.
It was a busy morning for me.
I kicked off two chunks of pavement,
one empty plastic bottle of Igor's Vodka,
a contraption that looks like a kick-start for a motorcycle,
a large mouse carcass,
eleven frog carcasses*.
*The latter is quite a puzzlement. I kicked ten of those carcasses off the south shoulder of the road. Carcass number 11 was kicked off the north shoulder. These were situated in the area next to filtration plant. I noticed more than 20 flattened, pancaked, and mooshed "has been frogs" in the middle of the south lane. I'm led to think that these frogs are breeding at/near the filtration plant and have chosen to migrate to the open water of the Ottawa River. In pursuit of their goal very few of them are able to make it across the highway.
Perhaps the heavy rains resulting from Hurricane Francis flooded out their living areas and forced them to relocate.
I noticed that September 14 was the day of the new moon (as opposed to the full moon). Biologists out there, may I assume that these frogs were effected by the September new moon? Is it possible that during their migration they had insufficient light and hence met their doom. Perhaps it has something to do with Hurricane Ivan and our extreme weather patterns.
For years, I cycled the Parkway regularly; however, this is the first time I encountered this frog phenomenon.
Bye,
Mary