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Spring Peepers

© Marge Talt

November is an odd time of year to talk about spring peepers, but given that this has been the year of the peeper around this house, they're on my mind.

	I've always been fond of amphibians; I'm a staunch fan of the toad, but these minute creatures have captured my heart.

Spring peepers are one of the thirty genera and three hundred ninety-five species in the Hylidae family of tree frogs; actually they're one of the subspecies known as chorus frogs. There are two subspecies of spring peepers, the Northern Spring Peeper, Pseudacris crucifer crucifer with an unmarked abdomen and the Southern Spring Peeper, Pseudacris crucifer bartramiana, whose abdomen has spots. It is found only in Georgia and northern Florida, while the northern species is found throughout the eastern part of North America from Canada south and west through eastern Texas to Wisconsin.

While extremely common, they are seldom seen since they are very tiny, reaching only 3/4"-1 3/8" (1.9-3.5cm) in body length. While you may never have seen one, if you live within their range, near a wooded area or grassy meadow, marsh, pond, sandy coastal area or pine barren, you've likely heard them; they even move into suburban shrubbery for the summer. Their chorus is one of the first signs of spring.

Until this year, my only encounter with these shy fellows was some years ago, while cleaning up potted house plants one fall, something almost transparent plopped off a leaf into one of the pots. I searched, but couldn't find anything and thought I must have imagined it. I now know it must have been a peeper. I have no clue what became of that fellow; I never saw it again.

This year, probably because of all the rain we had, I've been knee deep in peepers. It seems like I spent the summer retrieving peepers from kitchen and bath (now, how on earth did it get in there?).

Because of the cool, rainy season, the greenhouse never got totally emptied. Somehow, two peepers found their way in and set up housekeeping. Since there weren't many plants in there, I saw both of them almost daily while watering. When time came to scrub down the greenhouse for the winter, they each had to be caught several times and moved from spot to spot to keep them out of harm's way. They were not thrilled by this.