Fern Glen Essays
Acourtin' to this froggy...
by Judy Sullivan

Lately my congested work schedule has been pressed aside to make ample rheum for respiratory affliction. However, a week ago temperatures soared and even mine couldn't keep me abed while the Sirens of spring sang outside my window. I found myself tottering down our steep, rutted driveway with a bouncing 60 lb. dust ball at the other end of a retractable leash.

Our road was a potter's field, sucking at soles. Yellow coltsfoot daisies tripped down the embankments; the skunk cabbage cast its pungent perfume. Yet, sweetest herald of all was a chuckling quack, like the sound of chewing on a rubber balloon. Rana sylvatica. The beautiful wood frog. Ra'-na Latin for "frog" and syl-va'-ti-ca "of the woods."

The following sound file was created by capturing the frog calls on a cheap tape recorder and then (equally cheaply) playing the tape into the microphone on my computer. The result is an audiophile's nightmare, but should give you an idea of the call for which you should be alert.

Click here to play mp3 sound

The name is succinctly informative. Rana sylvatica generally resides in the recesses of the forested landscape. However, once both earth and frog have thawed, there is a single-minded rush to the nearest breeding site.

Peepers have barely begun their paean to spring as the wood frogs are concluding their nuptials. So frenzied are the males by their eagerness to breed that they fail to recognize the intended object of their attentions. In other words, they'll attempt to mate with anything that moves. No hearts, no flowers, no pitching of woo. They engage in an orgy of embracing until a clasp surrounds one whose voluptuous form describes a female fat with eggs. Thin females are rejected (Take that, Julia Roberts!) and other male frogs, if grasped, will croak in protest.

Breeding is accomplished in shallow ponds or vernal pools, formed in spring and usually dry by summer. As such, wood frogs have a small window of opportunity. Their eggs are laid in baseball-sized blobs, containing an average of 1500 individuals, which float just beneath the water's surface. The gelatinous substance that binds the eggs together quickly assumes a greenish tinge, courtesy of a species of algae, which creates an effective camouflage. Although I've seen these clusters widely scattered in temporarily flooded lowlands, they as frequently form a gooey smear that can cover an area ten or more feet in diameter at the shallow edge of a pond. This strategy of laying eggs en masse operates on the theory that out of the multitude, at least a few will survive. Fortuitous for the few, albeit less amiable for the majority. In nature sacrifice is the norm, survival the exception. In this case, the glossy black tadpoles that hatch three to four weeks later become snack and sustenance for a host of animals. While the tadpoles feast on algae and old leaves; diving beetles, turtles, snakes and herons feast on frogs legless.

By June, the tattered remnants of the tadpole population will have metamorphosed into handsome young froglets. While we often think of frogs as generic green, the wood frog is attired in sartorial splendor that would dignify any Hollywood designer. It's copper sheen and Zorro mask of black give it a dashing quality that always makes my heart skip a beat. You think that foolishly feminine, I'm sure. However, let one of these 2" amphibians leap at you from a scuffle of leaves and your hand will to your throat flutter and you'll say breathlessly, "Who was that masked frog?"

The dust ball, by the way, was less impressed by the sound of the frogs than he was by their smell. He managed to single handedly (single pawedly?) silence a chuckling chorus of Rana by leaping into their pool with a rasping bark of his own. Thanks to his efforts, no froggy went acourtin' that night.

Questions, comments, or other feedback to Judy Sullivan.