Spring Peepers Pair and Egg

Spring Peeper Egg, Homer Lake Wetland 3/10/202

Doing "my homework" last night, I learned that in contrast to many frog species that lay their eggs in large clusters (some of which we will see this year), spring peepers lay their eggs singly along plant stems. Today at the wetland I spotted a pair of spring peepers together (photo below) and checked the dead reed they were on and sure enough found four or five eggs spread out along the length of it, one of which is shown above. 

Female spring peepers have their work cut out for them in that they lay from 800 to 1000 eggs. Spreading them all out must require a fair amount of "leg work" but presumably avoids the proverbial problem other frogs may encounter of "putting all their eggs in one basket."

Incidentally, you may notice one of our friends, the fairy shrimp, photobombing in the top right corner of the photo below.

S
Pair of Spring Peepers, 3/10/2021

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