Drought, frogs and otters.

After more than a month without rain, the entire area around the little bog was extremely dry, the waterlevel had dropped a lot and the ground was bonedry. The plants were also beginning to look like they were in need of water, their colors were fading and they were lying down on the forest floor more than standing in their usual upright position.

On Tuesday the weather finally changed and brought som much needed water, it rained almost nonstop the next two days, and I spent as much time as I could with my camera crawling around on the ground looking for anything interesting to photograph.

The wood anemones were still a bit damaged from the long drought, although they did look better than they did a couple of days ago, they had lost many of their leaves and the colors were not as bright as they used to. I did manage to find a few in the lower parts nearest to the water who still looked good.

 

One thing I was especially keen on finding out was if the rain had made the frogs become more active, but sadly I did not see that many frogs. I do not know if this is due to the lack of rain or there just are not that many frogs in the bog, there use to be many frogs in the area but the last couple of years it seems like many have disappeared.

All frogs and toads are protected in Denmark but sadly many of their natural habitats are destroyed as humans build roads, expanding cities or use the land for agriculture.

Fortunately this little bog is located in an area that is not suited for farming or building, and because several endangered species have been found there I have hope that this magnificent area will remain undisturbed and the frogs will once again flourish.

Another reason for the frogs disappearing could be that over the last 5 years otters have become more present, I have seen several otter slides in the area and frogs are on the otters menu.