"If it Quacks Like a Duck.."

"… it IS a duck." Not so fast! Not necessarily, if the month is March in this part of New England. If you approach a pond or vernal pool and hear what sounds like a flock of ducks (which if you want to know the correct nomenclature is a "Paddle" of ducks) but see none; then you have actually had the great fortune to come upon the wood frog in his spring pursuit of his lady. For the wood frog call sounds remarkably like the quacking of ducks.

Last Saturday, when it seemed like an April day, I was thrilled to hear this distant quacking coming from one of the expanded pools that collect along the railroad track. The sound was unmistakably them, going full guns, until my dog, who ranges a bit ahead of me, got to that magic place where, as if someone pulled the plug, it all suddenly stops. For the life of me, I don’t know how they do that. You would think one frog would be so into his song that he didn’t notice he was doing a solo, but no, all at once, hush. Mums the word. So I called my dog, and together we sat on the tracks (remember safety conscious people, this train only passes by twice a day in the off-season) and we timed how long it would take for them to think the coast was clear and start serenading again. 4 minutes, that’s all, and they were back at it, full vibrato.

This morning, it was peepers. Spring peepers, even smaller than the wood frog, 1" in stature, yet they put out, as many of you know, a huge volume of sound.
But here again, I was approaching a back bog, peepers peeping away, but as I got closer, all of them, on my side of the bog, clamed up. Staring right where I heard the sound: nothing. On the far side however, that group kept going. They clearly didn’t sense any danger from such a distance. It made me think for some reason of the line "One if by land, two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore shall be." from the "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere".

Now, if you are an adventure person, and want to get an even better look at either of these amphibians, then, stake out some vernal pool near you, or small pond, or drain ditch, or cranberry bog, and visit it at sunset, or later. The sound as you approach is deafening, and if you have a flashlight than shine it on the waters and you will see these impossibly tiny frogs, with impossibly skinny legs, frog kicking all over the surface in pursuit of one another. As for the wood frogs, they lie spread eagle on the water, another amusing sigh. You may also see the reason why they are there, but delicacy demands I stop the explanation right here.
The spring procession of amphibian amore continues, let me know if you get to be a witness to any of it. And again, to any of my desert readers, you may just have to be content with googling to find a sound recording of them. I bet you may have some desert toads to look forward too. Let us know.

P.S. Still trying to learn how to add the pictures. I tried to get them within the text where they belonged, but that didn't work and time has run out for me to play with them. The spring peeper is the one with the expanded throat, and the wood frog the one with the mask on his face. Sorry, remember when Laura and I are together at Easter this should get better! Pat