The Sultry Sounds of Spring, Identified
Janalee Caldwell is a noted herpetologist who works on dendrobatids (poison arrow frogs) in the Amazon. A professor at OU and curator of herpetology at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, she has kindly identified the sounds of the amphibious love-fest in the sound clip below.
I listened to your frog calls twice and actually I could only hear American Toads and Southern Leopard Frogs. The SLFs make a variety of sounds, so I suspect you are hearing their lower-pitched balloon call and the higher chuckling call. Soon the gray treefrogs should start there, but it is still a tiny bit early for them.
I also dug around in my art archives for some kind of drawing of a leopard frog. Turns out I have one: it’s a design for a small figurine , part of a series of fairies, mermaids, and gargoyles I created for a company here in Oklahoma. The notations are there for the sculptors and manufacturer to follow. The frog is wearing a floppy wizard hat and is giving some sort of advice (probably, “eat more flies”) to the young fairy maiden nearby who is listening with scepticism. If a frog in a funny hat gave me advice, I’d think it over very carefully before doing anything rash.
I took my little point ‘n shoot digital camera outside last evening, not to take a movie but to make a sound recording. The most amazing noises were coming out of my goldfish pond. When the storms are coming, frogs and toads get amorous. If you listen to this clip, you’ll hear American toads (the high pitched trill), Southern leopard frogs (the deep, rubbery sound that sounds like someone constructing balloon animals at a kid’s party) and something else, which I hope someone out there can identify for me. I think it’s a frog. And if I got the other identifications wrong, please set me straight. To listen, click on the link below.
