05-28-15 Finally a Nice Variety!

Finally a great outing for frog calls this year. There were cricket frogs at the east penninsula with fowler's toads in the distance, still disappointingly nothing in the meadow, fowler's toads and a cricket frog and a plains leopard frog calling at the river (though there had actually been a good chorus of plains leopard frogs calling when I arrived but they stopped and didn't start up again during my official listening period), then cricket frogs, a plains leopard frog, and a bull frog at the boat ramp with fowler's toads and eastern gray tree frogs audible in the distance. This recording is at the river featuring fowler's toads and a cricket frog:



This is near the boat ramp, featuring cricket frogs, with distant eastern gray tree frogs and fowler's toads and a bullfrog. There are also a couple of guest solos by a distant coyote:

6-17-08 Riverbend Forest Preserve, Champaign County, IL

A lot of cricket frogs tonight. The recording is from the meadow (cf. also entries for 4/5 and 5/18). Not a lot of diversity, but a lot of cricket frogs.

5-18-08 Riverbend Forest Preserve, Champaign County, IL

The picture is of the meadow pool-- a temporary pool that's stuck around quite well this year due to the heavy rains-- same reason the "Shallows" are not as shallow as normal.  Tonight's monitoring turned up a lone bullfrog calling from the Shallows where I would have expected much more activity. In contrast, the flooded meadow was alive with a deafening din of cricket frogs, fowler's toads and a couple of  plains leopard frogs.  I had also heard American toads apparently calling from the meadow as I was coming down the trail, but not while monitoring. The recording is of the meadow-- same place as the recording from April 5 less than two weeks before, but entirely different sounds. Check them out and compare!

6-23-07 Shades State Park, IN

Yes, I call this the Frog Blog of Central Illinois, but after a couple of weeks being too busy with family things to get out to do frog call surveying, I couldn't resist posting this recording done at Shades State Park in Indiana while on a camping trip this past weekend with my son Stephen. We arrived much later than we had intended on Friday night and were setting up our tent by flashlight. I became aware of a chorus of E. gray tree frogs at some distance, so though it was after midnight, Stephen and I went for a walk and were able to track them down more or less. There was no direct access to the lake where they were from where we were that we could find at night so the recording is done from the opposite side of a wooded area bordering the lake. In the recording cricket frogs are also audible. When we got near enough to record I was excited to hear quite a number of green frogs calling too, but unfortunately their calls are subdued enough they are not audible on the recording at the distance we were. After tracking down the lake the next day I had wanted to return that night to try to get a good recording of the green frogs, but that night there was a thunderstorm -- not conducive to tramping through the underbrush to the edge of the lake or recording either one.

6-3-07 Collins Pond, Homer Lake Forest Preserve, Champaign County, IL

Cricket frogs and bullfrogs. That's all I heard tonight at Homer Lake and Collins Pond. The recording is from Collins Pond. Very near me was a bullfrog under some overhanging bushes on the edge of the pond. The recording opens with him doing a series of three "croaks." Following this was a small splash from that direction. He gives another two croaks. A bullfrog from across the pond answers, then there is a series of splashes. This series is the nearby bullfrog, for some reason, being startled and hopping in a short series of hops across the surface of the pond several feet before going under water. Cricket frogs and some noisy birds form the background for this.

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.

5-20-07 Pond at Japan House, Urbana IL

Busy weekend and I wasn't able to make it out on my normal rounds of Champaign County Forest Preserve District Properties. So I took the opporunity for a quick stop in town at a spot I'd wanted to get a listen in at: the ponds at the Japan House on S. Lincoln in Urbana. I had expected more bull frogs. They were there and calling periodically, but not as many or as frequent as I had expected. Cricket frogs were plentiful and, as I was about to leave, an American toad joined in as well. In the recording here you will hear the American toad, cricket frogs, and a faint bull frog a few seconds into the recording. In addition, the blackbirds were active and noisy in the reeds and there is some distinct traffic noise from nearby Lincoln Ave.

5-6-07 Collins Pond, Homer Lake Forest Preserve, Champaign County, IL

It was a slow night for frogs and toads. As I made my rounds, apart from a good number of cricket frogs at Collins Pond (recording below), I heard only one insistent Spring Peeper still active in the woods across from the Walnut Hill shelter. The woodland pool where there were so many Spring Peepers three weeks ago (see April 15 entry and recording) was only mud, as was a low spot near the parking lot at Collins Pond which had had a couple of active Western Chorus Frogs during my last visit. Non-amphibian highlights of the evening included a close fly-by by a large owl (great horned?) at one of my listening stops at Collins pond and my first-ever sighting of glowworms in the woods at Homer Lake.

4-22-07 Sunset Lake, River Bend Forest Preserve, Champaign County, IL

On my survey of River Bend Forest Preserve tonight, I heard my first cricket frogs of the season. Here they are against a backdrop of American toads at Sunset Lake. I also heard a lone Western chorus frog in a woodland pool. I did not survey all of my normal sites at River Bend due to the high wind and less than ideal survey conditions.