Conservation Column: Listen for the Spring Peepers

Spring awakening in Missouri is a thing of wonder. The grayness and mud of a desolate winter gives rise to a resurrection of life known only to us in the Midwest. From near nothingness comes wildflowers, migrating birds and the birth of new generations of countless wildlife.

One animal represents this spirit as much as any, and it may not be one you’d expect. A diminutive frog, devoid of fur, warm blood or other means of warmth, begins its song near Valentine’s Day, a harbinger of warm weather to come. This thumbnail-sized frog is the “spring peeper,” and hearing it fills me with joy.

Every ditch and pool comes alive with peeper calls in February, as long as the weather is warm enough. Warm — 40 degrees or so — windy nights become a symphony of tiny peeping calls as, appropriately for mid-February, these little amphibians look for love.

Their bird-like call can be heard many dozens of yards away. As relatives of the tree frogs, spring peepers use enlarged, sticky toe pads to cling to vegetation in any available puddles. Their name suggests their call, as most often, we hear them saying, “Peep!” But they are known to make other calls, one which sounds like a thumb being run over the teeth of a comb and ascending in pitch. What music to my ears!

Here at the Nature Center, our rain garden is positively alive with spring peepers. Just beyond my office, the wet garden can become so noisy that the ever-present calls become a constant soothing backdrop to office work. When I need a break, I go out to these pools to catch a fleeting glimpse of these creatures.

Knowing their songs might give away their locations, they have a habit of clamming up just as you get close enough to see them. I developed a party trick where I “speak frog,” mastering a whistled peep of my own and setting off the males in competition, starting them up all over again.

If you are lucky enough to glimpse a peeper, you will find a tiny frog, much smaller than you’d expect by voice alone, tan in color, pointed at the nose and with a faint x-shaped marking on its back. I come up short more often than I find them.

It is reminders as simple as these little frogs that allow me to revel in the seasons. How grateful I am that every few months, Mother Nature changes step and presents us with something new and wonderful to explore. I encourage you to crack a window this spring and invite their song into your home as they welcome spring with you.

If you are really feeling “froggy,” don a pair of rubber boots and go out for a frog hunt at your nearest ditch. Invite the kids in your life, and show them how wonderful a puddle can be.

Alex Holmes is the assistant manager for the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center. Alex has a passion for outdoor education and can be found fishing and floating Missouri’s beautiful streams and swamps when not at work.