ou could hear them before you saw anything.
That’s usually how it starts this time of year.
John Ray was out at Koulas talking about peepers, and if you’ve ever been there on the right night, you know exactly what he means. It’s not one or two frogs. It’s a wall of sound. You stand there for a second, and your brain tries to figure out where it’s all coming from… and then it clicks. It’s the pool.
And the nice part is, this is one you don’t have to go searching for.
You can find it right at Koulas Farm, 185 Pine Hill Road. You can actually see the whole area from the parking lot. No bushwhacking, no guessing. Just stand there for a minute, let your ears adjust, and you’ll know exactly where to look.
Now here’s the part most people don’t expect.
That “vernal pool” doesn’t look like what people picture.
There’s no classic bowl-shaped depression. No obvious low spot holding water. In fact, if you walk it in the summer, you’d never know. It’s just a flat grass field. Dry. Open. Looks like nothing special.
But in the spring, it comes alive.
A lot of that has to do with how water moves through the area.
There’s a man-made stream that drains a much larger upland section and feeds into the pool. It’s not dramatic, just steady and quiet. On the other side, there’s another stream that leaves the pool, runs under the road through a culvert, and keeps going.
So you’ve got water coming in… and water going out.
That stream runs most of the year… until you hit high summer. Then it slows down, sometimes stops, and the pool disappears. What was full of sound and life turns back into that same flat field.
No water. No clues.
Just grass.
The field itself doesn’t really act like a natural depression either. It’s flat and sits at about the same grade as the nearby house area, which is a little higher than the surrounding land. It’s very possible this was shaped when the house was built years ago.
But here’s the thing.
Made or natural… it doesn’t really matter.
Because standing there, listening to that sound, what matters is what it supports now.
The peepers show up. The conditions line up. And for a short window each year, it works exactly the way it needs to.
One more thing to keep in mind while you’re out there.
The water and brush around the pool… that’s also home to something a lot quieter.
Ticks.
John mentioned he’s already pulled about a dozen off himself so far this season. That’s just part of being out in these edge areas.
So the best approach is simple.
Stay in the mowed grass area. You can see and hear everything you need from there. No need to push into the wet areas or the woods.
Enjoy nature… but let’s not let nature enjoy you.
If you hit it on the right night, you won’t need a sign to tell you where the pool is.
Just follow the sound.