Frogs Frogs Frogs (and a Toad).

We have two man-made ponds on our property. The larger of two is probably 3/4 of an acre in surface area. The second one is probably 1/4 of an acre. They are joined by an overflow pipe, so that if the big one gets full, the little one starts to fill up. But as a rule, the smaller one is more of a large hole with a marsh in the bottom than anything you might call a pond. They are both a bit overrun with cattails, some kind of willow, some small beech trees, and various other brushy growth.

As far as I can tell, even the big pond doesn't have any significant fish. I'd like to stock it some day, but the "how" has escaped me so far. I know it's not hard to acquire fish to stock a pond, but I just haven't tracked down the details.

At any rate, the lack of fish means that tadpoles are free to roam the shallow waters at will. And apparently the two ponds are an attractive frog habitat. Last summer, while the house was still being built, we wandered down to the edge of the pond to see how it looked. It looked like an ocean wave, rolling in reverse, away from the shore, as the frogs splashed back into safer depths.

So far this spring, I've heard three different frog calls. Maybe four. There's one that may be a frog, or may be something else. The first one I haven't been able to identify yet. It's a fast staccato vibration, like a door slowly creaking open. Sometimes even a bit like a woodpecker. I've also heard what I now know is a spring peeper. These are the ones who usually yell at me if I walk anywhere near the edge of the pond. The peepers fill the night (and much of the day) with a sound somewhere between a cricket and a bird chirping. Just in the last couple days, I've started hearing bullfrogs. Sometimes they sound like somebody playing the cello. The other sound I hear often at night (besides the peepers) is a high trill noise that lasts 5-10 seconds.

After writing this, I became more curious, so I went to Google to see what I could find. (This kind of scenario plays itself out several times a day. I think I have a Google addiction.) I was right about the peepers and the bullfrogs. I think the trill is the American toad. I think the creaking door is a pickerel frog. Either that, or it's those aliens from the movie Signs...

Someday maybe I'll get a microphone and record some of it and post it on here. They've got quite a symphony going out there. It's refreshing to hear when you crack the windows before going to bed. At least right now. We'll see how I feel by the end of summer.