The East Pond on the first day the frogs sang this year.
My volunteer duty calls! Finally…
The frogs sang.
Boreal Chorus Frogs. I introduced them to you back a couple weeks ago in another post. That’s right: frogs. Up here in the high country. Who would have guessed? And in hopes someone else might be as amazed by this phenomenon as I am by this song found so far up here in high mountains, I “volunteered” for FrogwatchUSA where I’ve been recording my observations. I figured if I didn’t, no one might ever know they were here. No one we know had heard them here before. By the time the two-leggeds usually arrive on the mountain, they have settled down for the season. When I first heard them a couple years ago, I don’t even think Bob believed me at first. (She’s hearing what???)
You’re not impressed? Not intrigued? Oh, I suppose it’s no big deal. Frogs may be everywhere, for all I know. But to hear their song up here, in the harshest of early spring weathers, when the ponds they call “home” have only lost their ice and slush days ago, snow still lines the banks, and morning temperatures range between 10 and 25 … I am amazed.
I’ve been checking both ponds (not so creatively I named them The East Pond and The West Pond) regularly, knowing it would be any day now. Two days ago, I checked the West Pond. One solitary voice, as slush still covered most of the pond. And this East Pond was utterly silent. But still a little sign of mud and open waters to give me hope. Guess that’s all it takes. I hiked up there yesterday in anticipation of the magical song.
Yes, it was there in the air. Singing, just a few voices clear in the crisp spring chilly afternoon around this snow lined secret pond. They have made it through another winter. How? It was 22 degrees this morning, and the ice and slush on the pond only opened up days ago. And there they are, clearing their throats and calling out in their simple, pure harmony! And by next week, we will hear a full blown orchestra that sends its voice nearly ¼ mile away in the wind… I will bring the boys up to hear it. We will sit silently on the cold and bare hillside, and marvel at these tiny wonders. We will listen to them calling out, their voices carrying across the mountain, big and bright and full of life. And I know, we will simply smile… What could be better?
This is big news from the High Mountain! For anyone who’d like to see, or rather, listen to our frogs, you can click here to be re-directed to the video link.
I had even planned to type something similar!