The title of today’s blog post brings to mind a movie that I recently watched, “Frogs” which is a 1972 horror film that was shown on Svengoolie. Like nearly all of Svengoolie’s movies, this one was certainly not scary but then, I promise you, this post will not be scary either unless you are totally creeped out by my friends, the frogs.
The weather last night lived up to predictions with lots of high winds and eventually, rain. After climbing into bed I thought I heard a, “Clack, clack!” The sound of Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus). They’re charming little frogs with a bandit like masks. Their coloring varies from brown, red, green, or gray. That seems to be something that often happens with frogs. Look for their color pattern but not necessarily their exact color. Sure enough as the wind died down a bit and the rain started, I heard that, “Clack, clack!” more and more. Frogs seem to love getting rained on. On through the night. All night long. Into the daylight hours they sang their song.
Thus the start of mating season for Wood Frogs. Males seek out vernal pools with the hope that those pools will retain their water until their tadpoles can mature, till the end of June, which explains their early mating season. Their clacking is an invitation to females to come to mate. Out from beneath the leaf litter where both males and females have spent the coldest of the winter. Soon I’ll be seeing Wood Frog egg masses in my little pond.
