I love springtime here in the Ozarks. To most people, the sound most associated with springtime is all the bird songs. But my world is also brightened by the love-inspired songs that male peeper frogs make during their breeding season to attract the females of the species.
To enjoy them, you need to step outside.. If there is any standing water nearby, you will hear their songs sometimes during the day but mostly at night.
Once the peepers start calling, they sound somewhat like crickets on steroids with their “Deep! Knee-Deep! Deep! Deep! Knee-Deep!” I am always amazed by the passion with which these tiny frogs sing. They do it for a month or more. The survival of their species is at stake. You cannot help but admire that kind of persistence.
A big ditch near the road by our house nearly always holds water during spring rains. When the peepers are there, you can hear their songs with windows closed and neighborhood dogs barking.
My wife and I once owned a cabin south of Ozark near the Mark Twain National Forest. If it was Spring and we were driving down to spend the weekend, we would lower the truck windows as we drove by the many ponds on our way to the cabin to listen to the songs of the peeper frogs.
When we got to the cabin and stepped out of the truck, we could hear the peeper frogs singing at the creek below the cabin, and by the waterfall that flowed down the hill to the side of the cabin.
Most of the time, the wood frogs would join them in the singing. They provided the baritone music to the choir of peeper frogs. If peeper frogs and wood frogs sang the “Little Drummer Boy” at Christmas, the wood frogs would be singing all the “pa-rump-a-pum-pums.
The night would come, and the frog songs got even louder. We would open the cabin windows or step out on the deck to listen to them. I would drift off to sleep in my recliner as I listened to their music.
One night, by the light of my headlamp, I pitched a tent by my fire pit near the creek and spent a night with the frogs. I threw a sleeping bag and pillow inside. As soon as I got comfortable, I heard something besides frogs. A gentle rain began playing music to accompany the frogs.
I lay there immersed in the night, the sound of the waterfall, the rain, and the frog songs. The frogs started singing with new inspiration. Rainy nights always bring on the best calling.
I woke up several times during the night. Every time I did, the sounds came wafting through the tent. I would listen for a moment, then drift back to sleep, listening to the choir of frogs.
We sold the cabin several years ago. Sometimes, I miss the choir of peepers and wood frogs during the springtime. I keep thinking about pitching a tent down by our ditch at home when the peepers start singing. I want to fall asleep again and awake to the sound of frog songs.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
“Nature is my church sometimes. The wind in the trees and the bugs and the frogs. All those things are comfort to me.”
– Sissy Spacek
One response to “FROG SONGS”
Cool story. Ribbit!