Wood Frogs Breeding

 

Every March, wood frogs thaw out as the warm 50 degree rain seeps into the ground. Wood frogs spend the entire winter literally frozen solid, their bodies producing antifreeze to keep their heart from freezing. When they wake up, they will hop until they reach a vernal pool, and then they start calling. First the males arrive, to call, and establish dominance with the other males, and then the females arrive, on a warm rainy night called "the big night" when spring peepers, wood frogs, and spotter salamanders crowd vernal pools to breed. This is my post about the big night of 2022: "The Big Night" Vernal Pool Life - March

I went to the vernal pool at Nobscot Scout Reservation, now called "Lobscot Pond" on google maps. The same place as last year. I could hear the soft quacking of maybe 10 frogs. It hadn't rained in a few days, and it was cold, windy and dry. I was very surprised to see that the males were calling in that kind of weather. It looked as if no females had arrived, because i did not see any frogs mating, just calling, and occasionally kicking each other. The males had arrived. I walked to the far side of the pond, where there was thick buttonbush and greenbrier growing along the shore. That was where most of the calling had happened.