It was pitch dark on a cloudy sweltering night in June (or maybe July). Farmers were already on edge, as the French and Indian War had broken out (sort of) a month before. The year was 1754 (or maybe 1758) – and in eastern CT, a legend was being created. You know what I’m talking about, “that ludicrous panic more widely known than any event in Windham’s history.”
In “The History of Windham County”, Ellen Larned continues the story, explaining how “a din, a roar, an indescribable hubbub and tumult” began sometime after dark, continuing until the break of day. After anxious citizens decided they weren’t under attack, they went down to Follett’s Pond (now known as Frog Pond) and found it littered with the bodies of dead bullfrogs, their croaks silenced forever.
Well, this morning it’s almost that quiet at Lake Marie, just upstream from Frog Pond. I’m trying to imagine this scene 270 (or so) years ago, but it’s hard without seeing – or hearing – a single frog. Maybe they’re all still gone? OK, admittedly it’s daytime. A Great Blue Heron hunting among the lily pads is silence itself. Other than a few other birds, the pads popping are the only sounds. Lily pads pop from fish sucking live invertebrate snacks off the bottom, breaking the surface tension momentarily. Bass and sunfish here swim through a shady underwater forest that reappears every May and June.
When I was growing up in the ‘50s, frogs and toads would breed in every wide rain-filled rut alongside roads; overabundance is a tried-and-true survival mechanism. And each time my Dad stopped our two-tone Rambler for gas, the windshield and headlights needed to be cleaned of dead flying insects. (Hint: these two things go together). “Shifting Baseline Syndrome”: each generation can only go by what they see, and the proliferation of the natural world before their time is a mystery to them, a legend. We’ll never truly know how many or how loud those bullfrogs were (they were heard almost a mile away) or even exactly why they died, but thankfully some probable descendants living next door in Allanach/Wolf Preserve are safe now. The flat little valley here must have been a pond or marsh even before the Lake Marie dam was built. In this Joshua’s Trust-protected area, Ballymahack Brook runs through Lake Marie, then under Back Road and right into famous Frog Pond/Follett’s Pond. How deep is Frog Pond? “Knee-deep. Knee-deep”.
Yes, a bullfrog breeding area is sometimes called a “booming ground”, and believe it or not, a colony of them has been called an “army”. Bullfrogs eat everything, including ducklings, baby turtles, and even their own tadpoles.
I come upon a Painted Turtle in the grass and try to interview her. Is she headed up to lay her eggs? No answer. I thought that chore would be completed by now, but what do I know? My Painted Turtle lived through a dangerous youth (like some of us) and her offspring will have to do the same. All summer I suspect the pond will be filled with the “tumult” of hungry bullfrogs.
~ George Jacobi