Salamanders, tadpoles, and a little shrew

The attached picture is the cluster of eggs Heather found while pulling Juncus out of the bog on Sat. morning. They are not frogs eggs so we surmise they may be salamanders. If you look closely you can see the external gills.  There are also "tons" of tadpoles in the pond! All that croaking in early spring by the adults has produced a bumper crop. Frogs may be disappearing in other locations around the world but lets hope our Tree Frogs have found a permanent home in the bog.

    Gerry

skull in a scat

Gerry reports signs of a coyote in the bog

"On Saturday we will continue to prepare the area we have been working on for the past few months. With any luck we may get the area planted before the warm dry weather arrives.  The attached pictures, taken in the bog, of coyote scat show the remains of a small rodent. Can anyone identify the critter? Squirrel maybe?"  - Gerry 
(photos, by Gerry Mignault, below)

Bog Preservation, literally

Denmark's Tollund Man, found in a bog with barley and flax in his stomach and a leather belt around his waist.

"We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on by body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books."

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

Brothers Emil and Viggo discovered a body in their bog and called the police.  The police examined the clothing on the body and phoned the museum...
What is a bog and how is it able to preserve things for so long? Find out here
Nova's interactive on Tollund Man
The Crazy Boggers also found some artifacts, though no body has turned up...yet.