Isabel brought gifts to CT

[Ginx snewx]

A Hurricane's Unusual Gift
Isabel Drops Amphibian Eggs On Berlin Homeowner's Porch

October 2, 2003
Associated Press

BERLIN -- In a scene that sounds more biblical than plausible, masses of amphibian eggs rained down on Primo D'Agata's porch last month as the remnants of Hurricane Isabel moved through the state.

At first, D'Agata thought the thumping noise he and his wife heard on the back deck Sept. 19 was hail. But when he went outside to take a look, D'Agata discovered tiny, gelatinous eggs with dark spots in the middle.

"I couldn't even pick them up with a spatula, they were so sticky," D'Agata said.

Biologists from nearby Central Connecticut State University say the eggs are likely from frogs. And because no frogs in Connecticut lay eggs this late in the year, scientists and naturalists speculate they may have come up from North Carolina or another warm location on the winds of Isabel.

D'Agata brought a bowl of his mysterious find to a nearby nature center, after the town's animal control officer couldn't identify what had arrived in his yard.

Nicolas Diaz, a naturalist and teacher at the New Britain Youth Museum at Hungerford Park, took a look at D'Agata's bowl and told him it looked like amphibian eggs.

"It is quite possible the storm carried the eggs right up the coast and dropped them here in Connecticut," Diaz said. "If you had a strong wind and strong updraft, it could lift something right up," he said.

People often bring animals and plants to the center for identification, Diaz said. But D'Agata's eggs are among the stranger things he's seen.

"It was hard to get my mind around that these had traveled up from some subtropical area," he said.

Some of the eggs were brought to Central Connecticut State University for testing, but their origin could not be determined because whatever was inside them did not live long enough to hatch, said Ruth Rollin, chairwoman of the school's biology department.

Hatched eggs would allow scientists to identify the type of frog or other amphibian, and that identification would point to a region of the country where the animal lived, she said.

D'Agata is keeping two small, water-filled glass jars of the eggs to see if any of them will hatch. He said a few seem to have sprouted what looks like a tail.

"I'm going to let them sit and see what happens," D'Agata said.

[JCT777]

That's pretty interesting. Thanks for posting it, Ginx.

[mobile bay girl]

Thanks for sharing. My class will love it! It ties in great with our environmental study unit.

[Ginx snewx]

Ah a teacher who uses real life examples in Science, oh where were you when I was in school???

[SolakNC]

Great story! Guess not all of Isabel ended up in Ohio

[weatherluvr]

My mother told me about a shower of small toads she saw when she was younger. This was in Leicester, MA in 1953, the day of the big tornado in Worcester County. I've heard a lot of stories about frogs, fish, snakes etc. falling from severe storms, but it's usually highly localized. I'd be very interested in finding out where these eggs originated from. The scary part is that Isabel didn't come close to CT!

[Colin]

Cool story! Thanks for sharing it!!

[ColdFront77]

Didn't Hurricane Isabel's wave action send these eggs to the Connecticut coast?

[abajan]

It's not the first time I've heard of this sort of stuff happening. It seems to me that frogs are the most common animal to fall from the sky. What I find more than a little strange is that it's usually just one type of creature that rains whenever one hears of these occurences.

Sometime back in the 1980's, Barbados was invaded by thousands of Locusts which were believed to have hitched a ride from Africa on a Cape Verde storm. Thankfully, the local birds made a feast of them before they could do much damage to crops.