I finally got around to completing one of the two videos that I had on the docket, but we have to lead into it a little.
The backstory: With the gout of warm weather a short while back, the various amphibians around the yard (among many other critters) leapt into action and were out making a dogawful racket some nights – as in, it was actually painful to listen to from short distances. But there were several varieties of sounds, and I was unable to place all of them, or really most of them. I have found various sources for frog calls, but cannot pin down close matches, possibly because of the differences in recording equipment, possibly because there may be regional variations in calls, and possibly because species do not always engage in the ‘typical’ calls that are recorded. So we’ll start with what was obtained with the audio recorder and the parabolic mic, but I will strongly suggest you keep one hand on the volume control – the peaks are sharp.
Amphibious calls early spring 2026
I failed to remark on it within, but it seems damn near every bit of audio I snag at night has a distant train – I never realized how often they can be heard, always several kilometers off, but it’s a lot. I guess I just tune them out when I’m out there.
Those experiences prompted m to try again with video, especially one particular night that was very warm and the frogs were remarkably easy to spot, which is not often the case; most times, I can be right on top of them, knowing they’re in a particular direction within two meters, and never see a damn thing. So these clips weren’t too shabby (well, except for the instability,) and included several bonuses.
[A note about that wobbliness: The monopod, used most often for the nutria and beaver videos, is far too long to be useful for subjects less than half a meter off of the ground, so I eschewed it in favor of more flexibility. These clips made me realize that this isn’t feasible either, and I’ll have to use a mini-tripod or some kind of short brace, and I’ll show what I ended up using later on when I find something that works decently.]
By the way, my primary source of info is this Herps of NC page, which has recordings for almost all species that can be found, though if you’re inclined to check it out yourself, know that I’m located closer to the coast about in the middle, where the various large rivers give way to the sound. I’ve been misled by the pictured ranges though, so I don’t treat this as gospel, but we can effectively rule out those species that appear only in the mountains in the western reaches of the state.
Now, last year at about this time I was doing the same thing, and made a few tentative identifications of southern leopard frogs, Atlantic coast leopard frogs, and possibly either wood or gopher frogs. The problem is, in the intervening year I’ve only found one of those species for sure, the southern leopard frog, and so I can’t be certain that any of the others are even in the area; I’ve looked carefully, believe me, because with the tantalizing hint from the calls, I’d be happy to add any of them to my photo stock, but there have been no signs whatsoever.
After these, the nights went absolutely frigid and almost all such activity ceased, but it’s warming up again and so I’ll possibly have some further chances to pin down more species. We’ll see…