Connecticut Audubon Society

RING IN SPRING WITH A PEEP
By: Carol Kasper, Director of Marketing and Communications

Forget about robins. The true harbingers of spring are tiny frogs called spring peepers. Come March, their chorus of shrill peeps can be heard across the state anywhere there’s a wet meadow, swamp, pond, or even a temporary watering hole. All of this noise signals the peepers’ breeding season when males are trying to attract females and defend their territories.
Measuring about the size of your thumbnail, peepers have an X on their backs and are brown, gray or black. They can alter their coloration to match their surroundings making them very difficult to find.

In addition to spring peepers, Connecticut is home to seven other species of frogs—the green frog, bullfrog, leopard, pickerel, gray tree frog and wood frogs. Frogs, like toads, salamanders and newts, are amphibians. Their lifecycle is divided between a tadpole larva stage spent in the water and life as an adult on land. They breathe through their skin, mouth and lungs. While a tadpole feeds on algae and other vegetation, adult frogs eat insects, worms, spiders, and centipedes. Large frogs, like bullfrogs, may even eat mice or small snakes.

Because amphibians are so dependent on water, they are one of the first animals to show signs of trouble from water pollution. Frogs with extra legs or toes or missing legs or eyes have been found in Connecticut and other parts of the United States probably due to factors such as acid rain, ultra-violet radiation (due to a thinned ozone layer), pesticides, and changes in habitat. Habitat loss is another problem that amphibians face. Vernal pools are temporary water holes that form in the spring from snow melt or heavy rains but by late summer have dried up and disappeared. These areas serve as important micro-habitats for frogs who depend on them as places in which to lay their eggs and as a safe place for tadpoles to develop into adults. Some frogs, such as the wood frog, migrate more than a half mile to reach such a pool. Land development eliminates vernal pools or fragments the habitat so that frogs can’t migrate to the pools in the spring.

Connecticut Audubon hosts monthly meetings of the Southern New England Herpetological Association, the oldest non-profit organization in Connecticut dedicated to amphibians and reptiles. Join us for their special event Snakes Alive & Leapin’ Lizards Too! on March 29. See p. 13 for more details.

Frog species can be easily identified by their mating calls. If you’d like more help, try using the CT Audubon’s Bird Identiflyer (available at the CT Audubon Center at Fairfield, Birdcraft Museum and Coastal Audubon Center) which includes a card of frog calls.

Green frog - plucking of a broken banjo string
Leopard frog - buzz
Pickerel frog - snore
Bullfrog - jug-a-rum, jug-a-rum
Gray tree frog - warbling trill
Wood frog - quack
Spring peeper – shrill peep

Archived from CT Audubon Society News Spring 03 Copyright Connecticut Audubon Society Reuse by Permission Only