Do frogs migrate in the summer? Each time it rains heavily around me, the air--immediately after the rain ceases--is filled with the sounds of frogs. This goes on for hours, and ceases some time after I have finally fallen asleep. I've concluded they all suddenly ceased their party, or fatigue has finally overcome the sound and I'm allowed some peace so I might sleep.
This phenomenon only seems to occur in summer, and, as I said, after some heavy rain. This gives rise (in my fatigue-ridden brain) to a question--do frogs migrate in the summer? Have they emerged from Florida's humongous swamps to head up the coast and enjoy the swamp-like conditions we enjoy here in the South Carollina Lowcountry? It's sunny and in the 90's all day, then thunderstorm dodge in each evening, either passing by with low rumbling of distant thunder, or pounding down directly with lightning, crashing thunder and lots of rain.
The air and ground are left soggy and semi-permanent swamps begin to rise around us to give mosquitoes a place to procreate. But after the storms pass by we are smothered by the sound of frogs singing, croaking, ticking and whatever. This doesn't seem to occur in the winter, so I've concluded it is seasonal, which leads me back to my original question--are the frogs just passing through, or are they gazing out of their little froggy villages and complaining about the weather like we humans often do? The fact that we have evolved such that we do not croak about it all through opened windows does not preclude grumbling thoughts that we seasonally give forth during these dog days. And this little commentary is my own way to gripe about it today.
Google sends me to a blog called "Ask A Naturalist," where I have learned that frogs are cold-blooded--I knew that from their heartless harangue at night around here. So, in fact, they remain in place and go quiet when the cold either drives them to the bottom of their ponds, or, some types burrow into crevices and under rotten things in the forest. Some can even freeze solid in winter, only to come back to life in the Spring and Summer (that is, if the freezing has not caused some sharp edge inside them to puncture a vital organ. Maybe that's what all the croaking is about--they are bemoaning the loss of some loved one during the coldest months. "Get over it, Froggy, your pal is dead." Make some new friends, but quieter ones, OK?
