LISTEN WHILE YOU WALK: THE PEEPING, QUACKING, TWANGING, AND CREAKING OF FROGS AND TOADS

摘要

The traditional harbingers of spring, for me, are not so much the robins, but the peepers. I know that the season is turning when that evening chorus starts. One or two singers begin, and the whole congregation follows. Peepers are only one of severalvarieties of frog and toad that serenade us. Keep your ears open and you will hear the others, too. Walking through the woods in spring may take you near vernal pools, which are depressions filled with melting snow and rain. Until they disappear with warmer and drier weather, vernal pools provide critical breeding habitat for many amphibians. When approaching these wet spots, you may hear what sounds like the quacking of a band of drunken ducks. These are wood frogs looking for mates after the long winter. The loud, repetitive trilling that seems to emanate from thin air is the call of the gray tree frogs, tiny critters that blend in perfectly with their lichen-covered perches.