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June 8, 2006 - When Froggy goes a-courtin'The Suffolk Times - June 8, 2006. 11 A Above: Tree frogs, like chameleons, can change their color and become cam- ouflaged. Here a tree frog is sitting on a green leaf and has turned green. Right: This adult tree frog has changed its color to match the tree it landed on. If it were not on the side of the tree, It would be almost impossible to see because Its color matches so perfectly. When Froggy goes a- Courtin' LAST NIGHT WE WERE just about ready to go to bed when the cat start- ed to run from one end of the house to the other. She knew something was outside, so I got a flashlight and went out to see what she was so excited about. The night air was full of intrigu- ing calls They were not the calls of birds, though some sounded much like the birdcalls we hear in the daytime from the red - bellied woodpecker, but I thought these nighttime calls must be coming FOCUS from frogs or ON toads We have an NATURE old irrigation pond down in by Paul the pasture that Stoutenburgh acts like a mag- net each spring for all those creatures that use it as a courting stage. It's here they mate and the female lays her jelly-like mass of eggs. With that done, she no longer has anything to do with the eggs. The warmth of the sun incubates them into tiny tadpoles that in time develop into toads or frogs I just had to find out who was mak- ing these unusual calls in the night. It was hard to tell just exactly where the calls were coming from. I knew the general direction was from the pond. Knowing four eyes are better than two, I went back to get Barbara to help. It was a beautiful evening, warm and clear, but pitch black. So there we were at 11 o'clock at night, the two of us, sort of stumbling along the uneven ground of the pasture hoping all the time we wouldn't step in one of the cows "'you -know- what." We didn't want to use our flashlights, thinking the fight might scare them. There were two distinct calls coming from the pond; one sounded like the familiar call of the spring peeper. I was surprised to hear so many peepers still around, for they start the mating game much earlier than this. The louder trill puzzled us a little. We thought we knew what it was; now, if we could just spot the caller to make sure. We shone our fights around and around and around and still couldn't find out exactly where these unusual calls were coming from. It's been said these mating calls can be heard a half - mile away. I believe it. We thought if we put our fights on them we would be able to see the reflections in their eyes, but no — we couldn't spot even one. Perhaps the night was too perfect; we were being sidetracked by its wonder. We moved in closer and closer, but still could not see our caller. We thought at least we'd see a toad or a frog with its pouch all inflated as it called, but we had no luck. We don't usually give up easily on things like this, but we finally decided to head back to the house to see what we could find out from our reference books As I was looking through various field guides and other references on toads and frogs, Barbara went to her computer. She was able not only to pull up photographs of all the toads and frogs, but the computer brought up their calls as well. VVbile she had the calls playing from the computer, she could still hear the mysterious calls down in the pond and, sure enough, one of the calls matched. First we'd hear it on the computer, then we'd hear it down in the pond. It was kind of weird. This proved we were right about what we thought we had heard calling: It was the gray tree frog. There was no mistaking it. What a song they did sing, all in hopes of luring a lady fair to mate with them. Tree frogs, as the name implies, live mostly in the tree- tops, but come down to standing water such as our pond, where the males lure the females into mating. And so we had an interesting and exciting hour with our night call- ers and solved the mystery that had bugged us for the past week or so. And to think we would have missed it if it weren't for our cat going a little berserk that night. We were sure she heard something outside. Was it the unusually loud chorus of the frogs she heard? The last time she became so excited, we found her peeking out into the yard between the closed liv- ing room curtains. When we pulled the curtains back, there was a big raccoon having his evening drink of water from our fishpond just under the window. The tiny tree frog moves about in the trees and shrubbery by jumping from limb to limb. The reason they can do this so freely is that the ends of their toes are Eke suction cups. Not many predators can jump like that. These frogs they have an- other trick to escape detec- tion.They can change color to match their surroundings It's a remarkable little animal. If it jumps onto the gray -white bark of a white oak, it soon turns that color, if it's on the green leaf of, say, a rhododendron, it will turn green. With this ability to change color, it can easily go unnoticed. Such are the marvels of nature. Remember, the tree frog's call sometimes sounds like the call of the red - bellied woodpecker, so keep your ears and eyes on alert, for you might just see a tree frog or hear a red -bel- lied woodpecker. Speaking of birdcalls, let me tell you about our windmill, which has an attraction for ospreys. It's usually in the morning when we first hear their high - pitched calls as they maneuver about to see who has earned the privilege of landing on the very top of the windmill. But it's not for long. Soon another will glide in, and the one perched atop is forced to leave while the aggressor takes the honored spot. All this time, other ospreys are circling about, calling in their high - pitched osprey call. Needless to say, the windmill is not turning, for I have it tied down until we can get time to pull the pump out and replace the leather washers that have worn out through years of pumping. I'm not sure why these ospreys play "King of the Hill (Windmill)" and scream away as they go through their antics. I don't know if they are our local ospreys — we have an active nest a quarter -mile to the southwest of our house — or if they are just nonbreeders trying to locate a spot to build a future nest. We'll just have to watch. The tree frog's call sometimes sounds like the call of the red - bellied woodpecker. 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