5-28-07 Shadow Lake, River Bend Forest Preserve, Champaign County, IL

The frogs and toads were raucous tonight! It was a loud party after hours on both lakes at River Bend and I heard three species I had not yet heard at this preserve: Fowler's toads, bullfrogs and Eastern gray tree frogs. In addition, I heard at least three plains leopard frogs (I had only heard one briefly on my first visit) and the cricket frogs were still loud and insistent. American toads were still active as well in one area of Sunset Lake.

In the recording, done at the flats on Shadow Lake, you will hear the constant clicking (in large numbers, almost like the ringing of bells) of cricket frogs and the constant bleating-like sound of Fowler's toads (much more strident than the trilling of American toads). There is the softer clucking sound or a plains leopard frog repeated throughout the segment (at about 20 seconds into the segment he makes the other sound in his repertoire -- sounds somewhat like a wet rubber sole squeaking on a tile floor) and about 10 seconds in, a single croak of a bullfrog (there were only a couple of bullfrogs active at this site and they seemed rather relaxed about calling -- one croak every minute or two, but over on Sunset Lake they were much more active and competitive with a near-constant booming). In addition, at a couple of points you'll hear crickets (the insects, not the frogs) in the foreground and a guest fly-by by a mosquito.