By Patricia Bogumil
Editor
Terry Alby is an admitted frog-hugger who hates to see them get croaked during what he calls Waterford’s “Night of a Thousand Frogs.”
That yearly event – in which thousands of critters migrate from a nearby pond to leap frog across Riverside Drive to the Fox River – is coming soon, Alby told the Waterford Village Board Monday night.
Although no one knows exactly when, he said.
“I don’t pick the date, the frogs do,” Alby explained before the meeting.
What’s needed to get things hopping is a stretch of warm, rainy weather, Alby said. With this year’s cold and winter-like spring, the migration is late, but it’s definitely coming soon, he added.
The problem, Alby explained, is that hundreds of the migrating frogs get squooshed each year by passing motorists oblivious to the nature event happening all around, and beneath, their vehicles.
“I am trying to do what I can to help more frogs survive through the migration, and let people know about it, so they can enjoy this wonder of nature like I have with my friends and family for many years,” Alby explained Monday night.
The Village Board took a great leap of faith and swallowed Alby’s presentation, unanimously agreeing to a one-night partial closure of Riverside Drive and a short detour to accommodate the annual migration – with the exact date to be determined on short notice.
The event will be monitored by local police to ensure safety, as well as numerous community volunteers; the village’s fire chief has given his OK, Alby explained, and described the upcoming detour as easy, fast and appropriate.
The village’s Public Works Department is providing orange safety cones to mark the closure, he said.
Alby, a Waterford native, remembers spending much of his boyhood observing and playing with frogs around the Fox Isle Park island on the Fox River in the village.
“My Mom has mentioned finding frogs in my pockets while separating clothes before doing laundry,” Alby said, adding: “I almost always caught the largest bullfrog on the island every year.”
The migration will start out from the large pond at the southwest corner of the Riverside Drive/Danielson Street intersection. The frogs will be hopping from the west side of Riverside Drive to the Fox River, Alby said.
“They cross over Riverside Drive staying almost completely between Danielson Street and North Street,” he said.
This year, as in the past, Alby will be on hand to appreciate the event. A talented freelance photographer, he’ll also likely be stretched out on the road that evening, snapping his camera as frogs leap by.
Alby said information about this year’s upcoming Night of a Thousand Frogs will be posted online on his and the Waterford Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook pages.
-
-
-
-
-