Spring peepers are the sounds of spring. Photo: Leslie Science & Nature Center’s photostream @ flickr

Do you ever wonder, when spring begins, what that chorus of what sounds like sleigh bells, loud crickets, or young cackling chicks is? It is that sound that I look forward to every spring.

Here in New England, we call the sound spring peepers: a frog that is tan or brown in color with a cross on its back whose size is one inch to one and one-half inch weighing 0.11 and 0.18 ounces. The subspecies in the north is called Pseudacris crucifer but some common nicknames are pinkletinks, tinkletoes, and pinkwinks. They live in forests and regenerating woodlands near ephemeral or semipermanent wetlands.

The male spring peeper makes the call on warm days and nights via a vocal sac located by its throat, which expands and deflates like a balloon beginning in March and carrying on through June during their breeding season to entice the females. Pseudacris crucifer lays around 900 to 1000 eggs per clutch under vegetation at the water’s base. Once hatched, they will transform into tadpoles and will become adult spring peepers in about 8 weeks and are ready to leave the water to spend the rest of the year in the woods.

Due to the loss of wetlands, climate change, pollution, and habitat loss their populations are significantly decreasing which has negative effects on the overall ecosystem since birds and snakes often prey on frogs. It has been reported that toad embryos appear to be dying due to climate change and, as temperatures vary unpredictably, the frogs’ immune systems lose potency causing them to succumb to a disease known as chytridiomycosis which has been killing amphibians around the world.

This is just another example of what climate change is doing to our amphibian friends and why it is so important to do what we can to stop climate change and the extinction of yet another species.

So, open up your windows on those warm nights and enjoy the sound of those little peepers with the big voice.