Early spring frogs and toads
Spring Peepers
The first frogs singing in my area (the Finger Lakes) are always the spring peepers. I always love hearing them because they feel like the starter pistol for spring. Peepers make a loud high pitched peeping sound, they seem to be most active at night. During the eclipse a few days ago they all started singing while we were in the moon’s shadow and stopped when it passed. Despite being incredibly loud and everywhere they are very hard for me to find. So I get really excited when I do.
Wood Frogs
The next thing I hear (if I’m lucky) are wood frogs. I have been hearing them in one of our little ponds and sometimes in the vernal pools near the woods. Various internet sites describe their call as being like a duck quacking. I guess it’s an ok approximation but I feel like it also had a flavor of rubbing baloons together.
American Toads
My favorite of all of them is the American toad. I love their call. One will start their long trill, another will join in, and then another. They’re a bit clumsy and easy to catch, not that I try to catch them anymore as an adult. It seems like their main defense if you’re not going to eat them is to just pee on you, which doesn’t hurt, but it does get toad pee on you. I figure they need their pee for something and I shouldn’t be scaring it out of them.
When they’re calling they are (of course) looking to procreate. As kids we thought it was very funny that you could put your arm in the water and a toad would grab on to it and then you could wear it around like a wrist watch. We were not really understanding that they were, you know, getting it on with our wrists. Amorous toads have excellent grip strength but aren’t too picky about what they’re gripping.
There was a toad that lived in our house for a few years when I was a kid. The greenhouse still had a dirt floor or access to it in a spot were there was a plant growing. Every once in a while the toad would randomly hop out into the living room. I’m sure it was named Mr. Toad but I don’t actually remember.
Muskrat
Obviously this is not an amphibian of any kind but there are peepers and American toads singing in the background and I was excited to get this video today. I don’t have a lot of muskrat facts for you at this time but Wikipedia does say that the hats of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are made of muskrat fur AND like beavers I guess you’re allowed to eat them during lent because they’re water creatures and therefore fish.
The End Bit
I was going to make this a whole “early spring things” roundup and throw in some of the cool early spring plants like trillium, colts foot, adders tongue, bloodroot, skunk cabbage, etc. I’ll try to do that in the next few days. I think summer weather is supposed to be on us early and the early spring may be gone before I’ve fully appreciated this moment in time.