Last night was a great night for Wood Frogs, here in upstate New York. The temperature reached nearly 60F during the day and a thunderstorm passed through in the evening. After dark, I drove to one of my favorite locations and hiked through the damp forest to a small woodland pool. There I found males calling, participating in their yearly cacklefest, with pairs in amplexus and plenty of egg masses scattered about in the shallows.
The real find of the evening, however, was a group of males knotted around one female … a situation that is not adaptive, for either sex. When caught up in a knot, the female is unable to lay eggs and the males are therefore unable to fertilize them. What happens is that the males wrestle and kick at one another until finally one prevails, at which time the pair quickly swims to the bottom, only to rise again some minutes later to lay and fertilize eggs in relative calm.
Even though I have plenty of videos of Wood Frog breeding behavior, every year I make an effort to witness their ritual. On this occasion, it was supremely invigorating to be out there in the moist woods, the temperature dropping into the 40s, and the Wood Frogs cackling their delight. Once I got my video footage, I turned my light off and sat down on the wet leaves. The sky was clear and the half-moon threw a blanket of muted light across the forest. As the Wood Frogs cavorted in front of me, I noticed moonlight reflecting off their bodies, little bursts of light coinciding with their movements as they chuckled. This is truly a cause for celebration … once again I have moved my body, mind and spirit into their domain, into their ephemeral mating frenzy, and I know that I am a better person for it.
Wood Frog Group Chorus with raindrops (made at a nearby pond on same night):
Daytime view of the habitat:
Just watched this. The opening shots-ot the moon, partially hidden, then exposed…The single wood frog, winking knowingly….and THEN, this mystical ritual… well, it struck me as brilliant.
i love the frog sounds. I used to work in a nursing home and one year I came upon a short video of a peeper in the swampy area of Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA and got permission to carry my smartphone that day and shared it with many of the residents. It thrilled me to see the delight on their faces and hear their stories of how they too enjoyed hearing them every spring!
Hello from NH. So happy to have discovered your wonderful site. What a terrific resource for folks of all ages. After thirty years of observing a nearby vernal pool, two years ago, I came across the first drowned female I’d ever seen. She was perfect – no signs of predation – but very dead. Though I had read about this phenomenon, until that time I had never found any evidence of it. One thing I have observed every year, is that as a female approaches the pool, the chorus from the pool intensifies, but the female, as she makes huge… Read more »
Catherine: Amazing observations and wonderful story about your experiences observing and listening with children at vernal pools. I totally agree with closing statement “Vernal pools are places of enchantment.” I only wish more people were tuned-in to the seasons to such an extent that they are on-location, at the vernal pools, when the wood frogs and spotted salamanders do their thing.
I’m really enjoying the stereo effect, which I would not be getting with using headphones. So… if you don’t mind sharing your recording secrets… do you use two mics, recording from each on its own track? You run two wires to get the sound from the two mics? How far apart are they?
Diane: I’ll get in touch with you about this via email.
I really love your work, the videos as well as the sound recordings – so beautiful and inspiring! And though I do pay attention to nature’s rhythms, your work always makes me realize how much I am missing! Thank you.
Why thank you Anja!
Love this!! Reminds me of my childhood. I grew up DEEP in the country and the peeping frogs would sing me to sleep every night in the Spring.
Where was “DEEP in the country”?
Good stuff!! Love spring!!
Cool! Must be cool for the frogs, too, mating in that ice-water. No woodfrogs calling yet at our place in the northern Adirondacks, but we expect to hear them soon. Some years we don’t have woodfrogs quacking and cackling until well into April. This year, after a mild winter that wasn’t much of a winter at all, we expect them in March. Today’s the 18th. Probably next week.
Hi there Ed! Even around here, they often breed in early April.
I’m trying to make out the picture I see near your name. I see water. I see lily pads. And I see something sticking out of them. Is that a wood frog, a bryozoan colony, or Lang Elliott?
it is all those things combined
A true multi-faceted hyperhybridized Renaissance man!
you can say that again … or can you?
Great video, although I am feeling a bit sorry for the female. We get to listen to the evening chorus of Coqui frogs here on the Big Island.
I’m actually putting together a new soundscape title called “Coqui”. It will feature recordings made in Puerto Rico, where it is the national frog. I understand that most folks on Big Island curse the little guy (the Coqui being an invasive species in Hawaii).
Great spring music! Do mating wood frogs have swollen thumbs like toads?
We have a little pond outside our front door where we get to enjoy froggy parties all spring. We had a gang-up like you pictured last year where they drowned the female – so distressing! A situation, as you so aptly put it, “not adaptive!”
Well, there you go … proof that males can indeed drown females! I’ve heard of that, but never observed it personally.
How marvelous of you to share! When so many males are after the one female, how does one male fight them off, while still hanging on? It must be tricky!
Look forward to reading more on your website.
Susan
The males kick at one another. Usually, the male that is in the prime amplexus position (meaning the first one that mounted the female) will ultimately wins out. But there are stories of females that ended up being smothered to death by males that won’t let go. I’ve never seen that happen and somehow I doubt that it’s true, but what do I know?
In Putney VT, the wood frogs started their cackle fest on March 16, two days earlier than the last “earliest date” of March 18, 2011. Last year I did see a motionless female in the grasp of a male, and the next morning, she was clearly dead from rough handling.
It is a pleasure to uncover the daffodils while listening to the noise!
So here is yet another personal observation of a female dying as a result of being caught in a knot. Makes me wonder if I should break up knots when I find them, but I guess wading into their habitat would be too destructive to do that (I generally can shoot videos safely from the shoreline, or only by wading-in a very short distance).
I guess you could call this froggy porn !!! Beautiful video. You’re one of the luckiest persons on earth to be able to view and video his. Thank you for sharing!
Listening to these little clowns makes me laugh every time! What a great first spring chorus the Wood Frogs are. A bunch of miniature ducks quacking away in the night!
Yes, I always describe them as sounding like little ducks quacking or cackling. They especially sound like Mallard hens, that typically burst into cackling bouts during breeding season.
Really really nice. Love the stereo effect of the peeper calls.
Hi Lang; where bouts are you located? You said upstate NY. I’m in Alden, NY. What kind of camera and lenses do you use? Your web site is amazing!
I live in Ithaca. My frog HD videos are made with a Canon XA-20. I can’t wait to upgrade to 4K, which I may do shortly.