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:
Frog call survey tonight was almost a no-show, but I did get a solitary plains leopard frog making his quiet chuck chuck chucks near the river. In the audio you can hear the river and some distant traffic noise along with the leopard frog's periodic chuck chuck chuck sound.
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.
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!
The "Shallows" weren't as shallow as they used to be, but there were a couple of Plains Leopard Frogs active nonetheless. I was able to get close enough to get a picture of the one on the left after my monitoring period was over. Too much water in the Shallows turned out well for the meadows, however, which had a lot of water and a lot of Western Chorus Frogs actively calling. The recording is from the meadow.
A lot of rain during the week had reflooded a meadow that had been full of American toads on my first visit. At that time, the American toads were all but deafening at this location and at my next visit two weeks later there was nothing but mud. Tonight there was one insistent American toad, a few plains leopard frogs, a whole chorus of Fowler's toads and even a few cricket frogs. In the recording, you'll hear an American toad followed by a couple of plains leopard frogs (the clucking sounds) followed by the American toad again joined by the Fowler's toads. The cricket frogs, unfortunately, are not audible in this recording.
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.
