This month I wrote about ducks that sound like frogs. Here are some frogs that sound like ducks.
Wood frogs are often the first frogs to appear in the spring in eastern North America, quickly followed by spring peepers. As the video indicates temperatures have to be in the 40s for the wood frogs to “wake up,” but western Pennsylvania hasn’t had a lot of warm weather yet.
The cold winter has made a difference. Two years ago we had an exceptionally warm spring and the frogs came out in early March. This year we’ve had a few blips of warm weather surrounded by temperatures in the teens, a discouraging combination for cold-blooded frogs.
Today we’re headed for a spate for warm weather that may signal the end of winter’s grip. We’ll know it’s really spring when we hear frogs calling.
Have you heard any wood frogs yet?
(video from Great Smoky Mountains Association)
Kate,
I have not heard any wood frogs yet but this week I’ve seen and heard Red-winged Black birds and that tells me spring is coming very soon!
off subject, sorry: I went today to the heron rookery on Big Sewickley Creek, saw more than 20 birds, mostly standing on nests, hard to see if any were sitting. One pair was mating, some appeared to be bringing food home. Do you know approx. when they will be hatching eggs?
Kathy, great blue heron eggs hatch in 28 days so you’ll probably see food being brought to the nests in about a month.
I was in Blackhand Gorge Natural Area along the Licking River near Newark Ohio today, and there were a lot of wood frogs calling…sounded like a hundred, but I’m sure it was at most 20 or 30. Very noisy! Not many birds out there today though…just a downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, and a few others I couldn’t identify. Beautiful day for a walk, though.