At 114 decibels, it’s in line with heavy machinery or a rock concert. At or close to 500 pounds for males, there is some mass behind the sound.
At the other end of the size-to-sound spectrum is the Northern Spring Peeper.
These tiny amphibians weigh in at a minuscule 0.11 to .18 ounces and can probably sit on your thumbnail, but they give the king of the jungle a run for their money for decibels per pound.
One of the first harbingers of spring, peepers can hit 90 decibels across the leafless landscape, allowing the sound to carry a great distance. That’s more than 4 pounds per decibel for the lion, .002 pounds per decibel for the little frogs, if you’re keeping track. They’re like modern stereo speakers compared to the giant old hi-fi stereo speakers: small but mighty.
I recall one spring several years ago. They were in a woodlot more than a half-mile away, but you’d swear they were just across the street.
If it looks like a frog
To scientists, spring peepers aren’t true frogs like bullfrogs or leopard frogs that we see around ponds and wetlands in Southwest Ohio. Those belong to the “Ranidae” family. Though they spend a lot of time on the ground and prefer the cover of leaf litter on the forest floor under the trees, like so many other critters, they have toe pads and are good climbers.
They used to be classified in the same family as what we call tree frogs, like the Grey Treefrog (another great noisy animal) in genus Hyla, but have been recently reclassified to the genus Pseudacris, with chorus frogs.
That’s a lot of thought and differentiation.
But when you look at it collectively, spring peepers have moist, smooth skin and live in moist lowlands near wooded areas or fields. They range in color and can change from brown to green to grey, often with an X or on their back. They can leap.
The males make a racket to attract a mate in the spring. The female lays eggs in small waterways, typically too small to even hold any fish or other aquatic life that could eat the tiny tadpoles that emerge.
The tadpoles are born with gills and mature into their adult state over 6-12 weeks. They hibernate in the winter and are even able to survive being frozen. Aside from that last part, it shares the characteristics of about every other frog, call it what you will.
The sound
If you’ve heard the sound males make in spring - and you probably have - you’ll recognize it from others. It’s a very high-pitched whistling or “peeping” sound. They make the noise by expanding the vocal sac in their throat like a balloon by closing their nostrils and mouth.
The sound happens as the air passes over their vocal cords and into the inflating sac. They can repeat the sound up to 20 times a minute, with faster and louder singers being more successful at attracting a mate. When you get hundreds of them competing together, you know it’s spring.
It’s probably also more bothersome to those who are more easily annoyed and trying to get to sleep after the time change. Later, the Grey Treefrogs will add their trilling call to the landscape for a full amphibian chorus.
After breeding season, peepers move to someplace moist with cover to feed on insects until it hibernates for the winter. They’re not afraid of a little ice or cold; they’ll be among the first to announce spring again next year.
Where to hear them
You can find, or at least hear, spring peepers almost anywhere there is some moisture and relatively undisturbed woodlots or edges at dusk and into the evening. Typically, woodcock arrive in the area on their migration north about the same time as the peepers start singing.
I can confirm that woodcock are here now, singing and doing their exotic dance in the evenings. The Five Rivers Metro Park in Dayton has several woodcock walks planned in the next several days, most assuredly to be combined with a chorus of peepers.
Devin Meister is a local outdoors and wildlife enthusiast and has a blog called “Average Guy Outdoors.” He is an Ohio University graduate. Reach him at meister.devin@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Conservation Leaders Series, Woodcock Walk at Cox Arboretum
When: 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. March 4
Ages: 10-17
Cost: $3
What: Conservation Kids Series, Woodcock Exploration at Cox Arboretum
When: 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. March21
Ages: 3-13
Cost: Free
More details for both: metroparks.org
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