Date: 4/24/25 2:22 pm From: Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> Subject: Where the toads are
In this age in which many of us worry constantly about the decline of almost everything that makes up the coat-of-many-colors of biological diversity … and which data shows is not just personal paranoia – things are declining – we have lost three billion birds (!) (since 1970, according to Cornell Lab) – and it is probably even worse for many amphibians …
… in this age it is refreshing to take a long, slow, methodical bird walk in a spacious environment like Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area and find numerous bird species in a relatively small area. Here’s my list from this morning: https://ebird.org/checklist/S228978770.
Recent rains in Northwest Arkansas City -- including flooding from last weekend – has Beaver Lake backing up into contributing creeks, including Little Clifty at Hobbs. A brilliant Prothonotary Warbler was this morning investigating all these new foraging opportunities.
Besides the fully justifiable despair about loss of three billion birds in 50 years, I must add the loss of the natural soundscape. It seems we cannot escape the roar of traffic in skies, on highways, in the endless construction of cities endless expanding – all that noise blotting out all of the natural world – no wonder so many of us are maddened.
We didn’t involve that highly sensitive hearing ability in a world of bombs, roars, and blaring. Neither did birds. Just think about it. To find a mate they have to try and sing and hear above all that crazy noise we have loosened into the broad heavens.
But maybe last weekend’s floods have cut us some slack. I heard several choruses of American Toads in the fresh shallows where Beaver Lake is flooding up into the hollows. They were really up to their game. I have enjoyed the songs of toads for many years, but I have never heard them sing with such vigor. Add to toads the singing of the Prothonotary Warbler, Kentucky and Northern Parula Warblers, and something (?) to far to say but was interesting.
I sat for a while and just let it soak in. A bath in toad song. Refreshment of rare sort.
I deeply appreciate the concept of “conservation area” in the formal name HOBBS STATE PARK-CONSERVATION AREA. I sure felt some conserving of myself was underway within an Ozark hollow filled with a chorus of toads.
