Monday, March 29, 2021

Orgy in the Pond!

 It's loud, loud enough to hear while pumping gas at the gas station across the street, but I wouldn't call it a din, because it's really a lovely, musical sound.  From close up, one can hear individual voices, but the effect is that of a chorus, as answering calls ring out, and distance and waveform interference and amplification change the pitch.  I figured that I'd use my phone camera to obtain an audio recording, though the light was insufficient to get more than a fuzzy impression of a couple of lights from the main road:

I didn't expect it so early in the year, because the spring peepers haven't started peeping, but the American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) having a major orgy in the pond at work.  These little critters are sex machines, they breed until May, in ponds, water-filled ditches, and vernal pools.  

I believe the low, growly sound is a pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris) that somehow got mixed in with the toads, perhaps looking for a prince.  Longtime readers will know that I have a fondness for amphibians, and working at night in a place with extensive grounds with mixed habitats (pond, bit of wetlands, bit of woods, bit of grassland), I encounter them on a regular basis.  I am overjoyed that I have a loud musical background to my worknights, and that this music signals the imminent arrival of another generation of little batrachian buddies.

2 comments:

Ali Redford said...

I'm a winter person, but these Spring posts you write always bring such joy!

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Thanks, Ali, I was just so happy to hear such music in the pond. My recording of it really doesn't do it justice. It's amazing how the pitch and volume are constantly changing as the singers try to outcompete each other to find mates. It really does feel like old friends are back.