As I write this (11 March), the temperature is in the 30s with a brisk NW wind that is gusting over 40 miles per hour—but I am thinking of spring. Someone who lives near Stroudsburg, PA told me this past weekend that she heard spring peepers. Our region is a little north of Stroudsburg, and I have not heard any calling frogs yet in the immediate area of Shohola.

Many people in the region hear spring peepers as their first frog of the spring, but some vernal ponds have an earlier spring singer: the wood frog. With ponds or wetlands that have both species of frogs, wood frogs can be heard one to two weeks before spring peepers start calling. 

Wood frogs start their breeding very early. They migrate to the water and sometimes have to cross an ice shelf to reach the open-water breeding area …

When do wood frogs start calling in the region? There is a pond near me I have been monitoring for the past eight years, and came up with a median date of March 29. The earliest date of calling one year was March 11 and the latest date, another year, was May 1. The average temperature was 62 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s possible that I didn’t catch the first day due to surveying or otherwise being somewhere else, but maybe caught the second or third.

Wood frogs are “explosive breeders”; the calls will only be heard for one to two weeks before they are finished. The frogs favor vernal ponds that dry during summer. There are no fish predators in vernal ponds, and because they start breeding early, the resulting tadpoles have developed into froglets and have left the pond before it dries during the summer months. 

After breeding, wood frogs leave the pond or wetland and head for their summer habitats, which are usually shaded forests. They may live a …

Along with the adults, the young-of-year frogs move to shaded forest areas to spend the summer. Adult wood frogs will not return to the water until breeding time the following spring.

Hearing wood frogs and spring peepers is always uplifting. It’s the sign of warm weather and singing birds to come. Enjoy the arrival of spring!