Sunset Symphony (audio)

Tonight I was at the wetland when the sun set. Although the frogs have been putting in overtime and calling during daylight hours over the past weeks, they've done so to varying degrees and in decreasing measure. In general, after sunset is the time to be there to hear them put on their best performances.  Over the past week or so, the spring peepers have been especially tentative during the daylight hours, to the point that I was beginning to think that perhaps their party was over and they had all returned to the woods. Once the sun went down tonight though, they proved me wrong. They were back in full form and once again the dominant voice. Nevertheless, the boreal chorus frogs were there as well as three species yet to be introduced in our blog. Each of these three species have begun calling just in the past week or so and each deserves a dedicated blog post to come, but allow me to introduce them briefly here in order of when I started hearing them over the past week: the northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens), the plains leopard frog (Lithobates blairi) and the American toad (Anaxyrus americanus).

I'm including an excerpt from tonight's "symphony" below for your listening pleasure. If you're the type of person who doesn't care about the details, stop reading and have a listen -- it's 2 minutes 15 seconds long. If you're the kind of person who enjoys reading the program notes at a concert, then continue reading before you listen!

Program Notes:

• Tonight's selection opens with a strong presence of spring peepers, which continues throughout (if needed, you can refresh your memory on spring peepers and how they sound).
• Along with the spring peepers at the opening is a lone boreal chorus frog whose song is a bit atypical in that it seems to be a bit monotone rather than ascending as they normally do (if you want to revisit boreal chorus frogs and how they sound)
• At 7 seconds in we get our first new species of the evening, the plains leopard frog. At this point in the piece you can hear something rather like a clucking sound -- that's them. They repeat this at about 14 seconds and at that point continue for a while.
• At 20 seconds in, an American toad over in the reeds section launches on a prolonged solo.  This is a prolonged high pitched trill that lasts about 27 seconds and then will be repeated sporadically through the rest of the excerpt.
• At about 37 seconds, the plains leopard frogs introduce a new sound from their repertoire. It sounds to me like damp sneakers walking on a tile floor -- a kind of squeaky sound, and then they're back to the clucking sound.
• Around 50 seconds in, there are some Canada geese flying over. Ignore them.
• At 1minute 6 seconds, a northern leopard frog tries out its voice briefly, but we'll get better samples at 1 minute 30 seconds and even better at 1 minute 39 to 41. The sound you're listening for (you might need earphones to hear it?) sound like a deep snore or perhaps an ominously creaky door slowly being opened. This occurs again from 1 minute 46 seconds  to 1 minute 50 seconds and again at 1 minute 58 seconds. Once again for the final time in the selection at 2 minutes and 9 seconds.

Look for more on the three new species of frogs/toad in posts to come. I hope you enjoy tonight's program.