Frogs Are Awake!

Image - Cable Natural History Museum

In another sign of spring, frogs and toads have started their raucous mating call season.  Over the past week of wetland hikes, their lovely sound has been in the air. 

True confession: I have a tin ear. So while I am hearing spring peepers, my hiking friends are also distinguishing wood frogs and boreal chorus frogs in that soundscape. I'm impressed by their skill - and also hopeful I can learn those calls better.

So far, I have been relying on last year's blog post with a short video of WI frog/toad calls. When I'm on the trail, I just search for "frogs" and the post comes up. I listen to the video but it goes so quickly, I'm not sure I am identifying the frog/toad species correctly while I'm out in the wetlands or near ponds.

Naturalist Emily Stone of the Cable (WI) Natural History Museum to the rescue! On the Museum's website, there is a frog call identification post based on a program they developed for first grade field visits. Along with the short 22 second video of the calls (image posted above), each frog call has a luxurious 15-20 second clip alongside a picture and identifying details of the amphibian.

This will be my new go-to. As a former children's librarian, I always believed that any adult learner, working on a new skill, can benefit from looking at/reading (and listening to!) children's educational materials. 

So here goes!