Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Spring Peepers

The pond behind the house came alive tonight with the mating call of one of the smallest frogs in North America .There has been the occasional peep for about a week but tonight,they came alive. The sound is almost deafening .

There is a strong wind blowing and I can still hear them as I type .

I remember years ago going out with Judd Bennett looking for these little buggers .I was surprised how small they were. About 2 inches . So much noise from such little guys!

They will call for about a month and then disappear for another year.
The only other time I give them a thought is during dry years the pond can dry up and the herons and egrets come in and gorge themselves for days on they little guys .Its like the proverbial shooting frogs in a barrel

2 comments:

Syd said...

How about when the pond goes dry? there have been years when that pond is dry. How do they servive?

crowldawg said...

Once the eggs hatch and the tadpoles become frogs they go back up into the trees .
They only need the water to reproduce .They are usually assocoiated with spring or Vernal ponds.Most dry out during the year.This one collects all the rainwater from the development and its roads ,so unless its real dry there is water in there all year long.
In the last few years Bull Frogs have shown up . They are more aquatic than the peeepers .I think they go into the mud during doughts.