Frog Return Moon – Hump Day Haiku

Frog Return Moon

Tiny, hopping, green.
A jumping living carpet.
You’d best step lightly.

 

Frog Return Moon is the name given to the full moon in May when the frogs start to come back. The name for this particular moon is attributed to Native Americans, but as to which tribe, that remains a mystery to me. Being a May baby, I first learned of the Native American zodiac from hippy friends I had in my twenties. I received frog everything one year, humorously unplanned. I thought it was pretty cool, being a fan of astrology and the mythology that accomplices it. It was lovely to learn a new set of signs I didn’t know existed. Plus, I like frogs, so it made it all the sweeter.

Frogs are important barometers for the environment. Being amphibious, they have very porous skin and are very susceptible to toxins. When there are lots of frogs, it means the area is healthy. When the frogs start to die, best look into what type of environmental toxins are polluting their habitat, including human encrochment..

The frogs came back this weekend to Marin. I can’t say I mind too much, actually, I love the little dudes. They’re super cute, about the size of the tip of my thumb. They eat mosquitos so we can go back outside without fear of looking like we came down with a case of Chicken Pox. Their song is lovely, a symphony of croaks. All good things. I don’t even mind scurrying after them when I find them in the house, cradling their minuscule bodies in my larger than life hands for our relocation program. Getting my son to look, not stomp is tricky at times. I usually have to catch his small foot mid drop and hurry the little frog into the garden. What I don’t like is having to scrap their smashed bodies off of the door frame, or from the bottoms of our shoes. But this comes with the territory. With all the late rain we’ve had, there are more frogs, which means more opportunity to tromp on them when moving from point A to point B, especially at night. They seem to congregate around the front stoop, making navigating through their hordes tricky at best.

The above picture isn’t mine. I wish it were. But catching these little guys on film is almost as hard as capturing them with your hands in real life. Boy, can they jump, and jump far!

Photo credit: Ribbit by Jeff via Flickr Creative Commons License