Ready Set Go Outside

Yummy Yoga for ages 7 to 10! One of our parents is facilitating this event in Wiscasset!

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Some of you may remember this sweet family. Please send all your love to them. Ryan was so obviously a good human.
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'The love of her life is gone': North Yarmouth man killed saving kids in rip current A close family friend tells Maine's Total Coverage Ryan Jennings died Wednesday after trying to help two of his children that got caught in the current.

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Donate to Help Us Keep Kids Adventuring Safely, organized by Ready Set Go Outside At Ready Set Go, we’re passionate about providing a safe, enriching environm… Ready Set Go Outside needs your support for Help Us Keep Kids Adventuring Safely

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In the East, the next warm rainy night can make vernal pools erupt.

What people call Big Night happens on the first warm rainy nights after the ground thaws — usually when nighttime temperatures rise above about forty degrees. Sometimes it comes in one explosive push. Sometimes in a couple of main nights with smaller follow-up movements.

This is what's staged and waiting.

Wood frogs have spent winter in a freeze-tolerant state under leaf litter. Literally freeze-tolerant — most of their body water can freeze while heartbeat and breathing pause until thaw. They wake with the first warmups and wait near breeding pools for rain.

When it rains, they walk. A lot of them. Often on the same night. A single vernal pool can receive a surge of wood frogs in just a few hours. Males arrive first and begin calling — a sound like ducks quacking underwater. Females follow. Mating is immediate. Egg-laying is concentrated into just a few days, and the adults leave the pool quickly, returning to the forest until next spring.

Spotted salamanders are the rarest sight. Black bodies with brilliant yellow spots, emerging from underground shelters they've occupied most of the year. They cross roads. They cross lawns. They move with absolute purpose toward pools they return to year after year. You may never see one any other night of the year.

The spring peeper chorus has been building with every warm wet night. On the right night the whole wetland crosses a threshold. The sound carries through neighborhoods and closed windows from dusk deep into the night.

All three species converge on the same pools on the same nights. The window is narrow — a few nights per spring, and then it's over until next year.

🐸 How to witness Big Night:

- Watch the weather for a night above forty degrees with rain — that combination is the trigger. It often falls in mid-March but varies by region and year
- After dark, bring a headlamp and walk to the nearest vernal pool, flooded woodland depression, or forest-edge wetland
- Stand still for five minutes. The chorus fills in around you once the area settles after your arrival
- Look on wet roads near wooded areas — spotted salamanders and wood frogs cross roads during migration. If you find a road crossing, drive slowly and watch for animals on the pavement
- Red light disturbs amphibians less than white — a red headlamp filter lets you watch without disrupting the breeding activity
- You either see it or wait another year. This happens once each spring in a window of one to three nights

The next warm rainy night. After dark. Go outside 🌿