YELLOWKNIFE - At dinner time this past Mother's Day, more than 20 people joined Ecology North's first-ever Mother's Day Frog Walk.

Mike Fournier, a biologist with Environment Canada, led a tour around the north end of Frame Lake, dressed in his rubber boots and hip waders.

Jacob Vaters, 10, left, hands his biologist mom Lisa, right, two snails as a gift on Mother's Day. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

"I think it's an awesome idea," said Lisa Vaters, who joined her son Jacob, 10. "It's warm enough to get in touch with nature again.

"And he was so excited," she said, as Jacob explored Frame Lake's soggy shore for organisms. "What kid wouldn't be excited?"

Before venturing out, Fournier gave some background on amphibians in the North.

There is only one species of frog found in the Yellowknife area: the inch-and-a-half-long wood frog.

Fresh from their seven-month hibernation, the male frogs were out calling for mates.

Fournier even plugged a boombox into a parking stall and played the gathered throng various frog calls.

"The males will probably be in the water," said Fournier. "The females will be close by."

Fournier was also full of fun facts. Did you know that you can distinguish between toads and frogs because toads have much wartier skin?

Or that NASA came north in the 1980s to study the frogs for a cryogenics program, because they're capable of surviving being half-frozen throughout the winter?

Fournier identified frog calls and pointed out egg masses in shallow areas.

Finally, he spotted a frog and set up a scope to allow people to view it up close.

The frog, sitting half-submerged in the pond, kindly co-operated by not moving.

One viewer commented that it looked like the frog was watching him.

"The last two or three days, it has started to warm up, and the frogs are really calling," said Fournier, who had initial worries that the event was being held too early in the season.

The frog walk kicked off Ecology North's new Youth Ecology Club - restarting a club that dissolved a couple years ago.

Jacob Vaters has been catching amphibians for quite some time.

The Vaters moved to Yellowknife a year and a half ago from Nova Scotia.

"I used to catch a lot of toads there," he said.

Lisa has a master's degree in biology.

"I think it rubbed off on you, Jacob," she said.

"Thank you," Jacob replied, as he scooped a snail and its baby out of the water.

He then walked over and handed them to his mother as a gift.