Southern Chorus Frog, once abundant but now seemingly less so.
Well, it was not really spring but 22 February 2024 was a fairly decent northcentral Florida day. The high had been about 73F and the low was forecast about 10 degrees cooler. Not bad. But then I remembered that the herping spot I was thinking about was about 100 mile further north, so I subtracted 3 or 4 degrees, thought for a minute or two, and decided, what the heck. I was tired of sitting home, so I washed the car’s windshield, and headed northward beneath a sky filled overhead with skudding clouds, and looking ahead into a horizon of gray. Ten miles up the road it clouded up a bit more, sprinkled for a couple of miles and then as I drove on the rains came. In a flash the car had me amidst a literal downpour. It rained and rained some more. But no herps, not even the rain-loving amphibians seemed to be moving..
After a pass or two on the tried and true (and now failing) roadway I decided to head towards home. A couple of miles south I ran out of the downpour. Here the rain was barely falling, and whoops—frogsong—Southern Chorus Frogs, Pseudacris nigrita, from the roadside. The car, or I, had been well trained. No cars behind, onto the grassy roadside, stop, grab flashlight and camera, and I was heading for frogsong from the newly freshened roadside ditch.
What had been an uneventful night soon became a joyful one for the chorus frogs were not the only species calling. Before midnight I had added spring peepers, Pseudacris crucifer, and even a few unexpected warmer weather (=springtime) species-, green and squirrel treefrogs, Hyla cinerea & H. squirella, a few southern toads, Bufo (Anaxyrus) terrestris and oak toads, B (A) quercicus, among them. And although they were not chorusing, Southern Leopard Frogs, Rana utricularia, were out and very active.
Ahhhhh, Florida and spring in Midwinter. Always good to experience.
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