There’s a sure sign that spring is just around the corner. Over the past couple of weeks, the silence of the night has been disturbed by a loud peeping sound. It’s mating season for the spring peeper.
Peepers are tiny chorus frogs that are hardly bigger than your thumb nail. They’re light brown in color and have a dark x-shaped mark on their backs and specialized toe pads for climbing. They are found throughout eastern United States and Canada,
So you might ask, how can a frog that size make that much noise every night? The males mating call has been referred to as sleigh bells or silver pipes by many people. Male peepers repeat this sharp, shrill note roughly 20 times a minute, creating a near deafening chorus near wetlands. Males have a vocal sac under their jaw that expands and deflates like a balloon to create their unique mating call.
Breeding occurs in the spring, when each female lays between 500 and 1,200 eggs in shallow water. They begin to hatch in about two weeks. The tadpoles develop into adult frogs in 45 to 90 days. Their average lifespan is roughly three years.
Peepers move into woodlands in the fall and feed on insects, spiders and beetles before hibernating under logs and bark for the winter. They survive the sub-freezing temperatures by producing a high level of glucose in their blood which acts as an anti-freeze.
Obviously, there are a large number of these frogs, and they are a basic food for raccoons, foxes and other predators.
For the last few mornings, I have heard a much larger animal out in the meadow. Their gobble is definitely a sign of spring. This morning there were six large, long-bearded turkeys in full strut out in the meadow beyond the pond. With their tails fanned out and wing tips dragging, they were gobbling and trying to entice a hen to come in to mate. Their heads turn red and the length of their snood – the fleshy, wrinkled flap of skin that hangs off the beard makes a big difference. The longer and brighter the snood, the greater the attraction. I guess it’s just another example where size does matter!
I find it strange we hadn’t seen any turkeys in the meadow until last week. Usually, it is a haven for these birds.
Turkeys wake up the morning on sort of a quiet note. Just as dawn approaches they start quietly talking while still in the tree. Finally the tree talk ends when one of the toms in the flock decides to gobble. That call entices another tom to return a call and a chorus of gobbles wakes up the morning.
Sitting out along the hedge row in full camo is one of my favorite thing to do in the spring. I don’t want to shoot one of those beautiful birds, but I do enjoy listening to them so I can answer them back.
Other birds like robins, chickadees and cardinals increase their singing in the morning to attract a mate.
Should we be surprised at all these melodies and songs? Definitely not. Spring is the rebirth of life. Flowers and plants spring from the ground while birds and animals gather.
It certainly is nature at its finest.