Have you heard it? The spring chorus has been loud and persistent in my back yard, and what a sweet song it is!

Can you identify the two species singing in this video, made in Brunswick on April 17? The US Geologic Survey has a great frog call look up. You can access it here: USGS Frog Call Look Up. But here’s a hint: “In Maine, as the landscape thaws in April, wood frogs and spring peepers emerge and begin calling out for mates and defending tiny territories. It’s not until mid-May that the American toad, northern leopard frog, and pickerel frog take over the chorus. And in early July, the American bullfrog, gray tree frog, green frog and mink frog take the stage in a cacophony of trills, glugs, clacks and moos.” (Bangor Daily News)

You can play an important role in monitoring the annual breeding season for frogs and toads by becoming a FrogWatch USA volunteer monitor.

Simply learn to identify local species by their call and complete the online certification. You can then visit your local pond to count the calling frogs, for just a few minutes when you have time. Share your data to contribute to FrogWatch USA’s long-term, large-scale scientific knowledge base. In this way you can support the understanding of local frog and toad species presence as well as their natural history, range, and behavior. Citizen science is one of the most valuable ways that scientists are able to gather data to compare across regions and time. Become a citizen scientist today!

Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs at a pond in Brunswick on April 17, 2017

From Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife:

“Since 1989, scientists have been concerned that frogs, toads, and salamanders (amphibians) may be declining worldwide. Unfortunately, a recent scientific analysis confirms these suspicions with fully 32% of the world’s amphibian species now considered threatened with extinction, which is a rate exceeding that for birds or mammals. Maine, like many other states, had little data to assess trends in its amphibian populations.”