What makes this especially intriguing is that frogs should not be active in January.  In the late fall, the vast majority of our frogs (green, bullfrog, pickerel, and leopard) will seek out a pond and bury themselves in the mud.  As the temperatures continue to drop, they will enter a state of torpor.  Their metabolic processes will be dramatically reduced and what little oxygen they need will be absorbed through their skin.  Typically they will remain like this until the spring thaw when food once again becomes readily available.  Clearly the frog in question chose not to play by the rules, and for some reason became active while there was still ice covering its pond.

Throughout winter, these frogs may freeze and thaw as temperatures rise and fall.  Typically it takes the frog about an hour to get all of its systems back on-line.  So in the case of an extreme January thaw (and if there was no snow cover), it is possible that there would be an active wood frog that could have left its impression in the ice of the vernal pool.  However, I have never heard of wood frogs spending the winter at the bottom of a pond, and the ice silhouette provided by Cori looks much more like a “pond” frog than a wood frog.  So the mystery remains unsolved.

Regardless, get outside and explore this winter!  Who knows what you might find!  Now that there’s deep snow covering the ground, keep an eye out for tracks.  Follow them and who knows what you will find.  Next week, I plan on logging an entry about coyote-deer dynamics in deep snow.