They’re called “spring peepers,” but it is in winter in Georgia when the little frogs become highly vocal, anxious to attract mates and make babies.
Since early February, I’ve been hearing them calling day and night, in cold and warmish weather, from somewhere near the creek behind my home on the outskirts of Decatur. Their piercing, peeping chorus sounds like sleigh bells or cheeping baby chicks.
Peeper serenades are being heard now in wetlands all over Georgia. The little tan frog, only about an inch long, is one of Georgia’s most abundant amphibians, easily identified by a distinctive dark brown X on its back — if you’re able to get a glimpse of one.
In some parts of Georgia, peepers begin singing as early as December and may continue as late as April, when temperatures range from about 35 to 70 degrees.
It is one of nature’s pleasant surprises, though, that this mite of an amphibian starts singing in the dead of winter, weeks before spring’s arrival. Singing katydids and cicadas might be the sounds of summer, but singing peepers are the sounds of winter in Georgia.
The males do the serenading. Their mating (or “advertisement”) call is a loud peep, which gives the species its name. Males compete for the best calling spots, and may suddenly shift to a territorial or aggression call (a trill) to warn away competing males — resorting to physical force if necessary.
Female peepers arrive shortly after the males start singing. Studies show that they respond best to males whose advertisement calls are most conspicuous and persistent.
After mating, a female lays up to 1,000 eggs on submerged vegetation in shallow, semi-permanent pools of water, where frog-eating fish don’t live. Eggs hatch in a week or two into tadpoles; transformation to tiny frogs takes two to three months. After breeding, spring peepers disperse into woodlands and fields for the rest of the year.
Also calling now — and often joining the spring peepers in chorus — are other winter-breeding frogs, including the upland chorus frog and the Southern leopard frog.
In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be last-quarter Tuesday. All of the visible planets are rising in the east: Mercury, low in the sky, just before sunrise; Venus, brightly shining, about two hours before sunrise; Mars, about midnight; Jupiter, a few hours after dark; Saturn, just after midnight.
