04-17-09 Spring Peepers, American Toads and Plains Leopard Frog at Private Wetland, Vermilion County

I was privileged to be invited to a "Frog Party" tonight by a friend of a friend on his private wetland. Well before sunset the American toads and Spring Peepers were raising a huge ruckus and it only intensified after sunset. They were joined by an occasional W. Chorus frog and one or two Plains Leopard Frogs. Maybe an early gray tree frog too, but over the insistence of the hundreds of peepers, it was d ifficult to hear much else. The recording includes one or two Plains Leopard Frogs throughout, but if I hadn't heard them in person while recording, I probably never would have recognized they were there in the recording. The Peepers were deafening and the American Toads were doing their best to keep up.

04-11-09 Very Cold American Toads at Perkins Road Wetland Site

First sign of amphibian life at the Perkins Road Wetland site tonight-- two American toads trying to out trill each other despite 42 degree air temperature (water may have been warmer-- the day was fairly warm before the sun went down). The recording here doesn't have it, but before I got my recorder out, a couple of calls sounded similar to a car trying to start on a freezing day-- just couldn't quite get it going, or kind of dying at the end. Apparently they got warmed up call-wise before I was able to start recording, though these still sound somewhat lethargic to me...