That recording is a jewel, David. Great frog chorus!
----------------------
Suzanne
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/swilli41/www
Florida, USA
--- In David Michael
<> wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I was in Clanton Alabama this past weekend visiting a friend's
farm.
> A mile or so down the ridge from her house, there were some swampy
> ponds that provided habitat for beaver and half a dozen or so
species
> of frogs. We hiked down there at sunset hoping to hear something
(she
> had never been down there after dark).
>
> When we got down there, it seemed like every frog species in the
area
> had congregated in these pools. As some of you on the list well
know,
> Alabama (and Georgia) has been extraordinarily dry this season.
Many
> of the springs and ponds in the area were completely dry. It seems
> that the only places in this area that were retaining water were
the
> valleys like this one.
>
> We got to the site a little late, after the choruses started. A
> generator or something had started somewhere in the distance that
was
> not running when we scouted the location earlier in the day. It
also
> seems that the county roads were closer than we had assumed.
> Furthermore, I have to honestly say that I was not prepared for
how
> drastically the forest changes at night, and we left the site to
> return to the house while the treeline was still visible. So all
in
> all, we were on site for about 30 minutes, which was not enough
time
> to wait for the sounds of man to quiet down.
>
> In this recording, there are bird-voiced treefrogs, green
treefrogs,
> distant bullfrogs and green frogs, cricket frogs (I think), and
> others that I cannot identify. If someone on the list would like
to
> take a crack at species identification, that would be great. I had
> never heard a bird-voiced treefrog before, and I am now completely
> obsessed with them. You will also hear the sound of a generator
> coming from somewhere miles away and a passing car. The car seems
to
> stimulate the green treefrogs to call.
>
> The whole episode has had me a little sleepless. All the things I
> have read about the structure of choruses do not really match the
> experience of listening to the bouts of one species sweeping over
an
> area and stimulating other species to sound in turn. Hearing this
> multi-species chorus has got me wanting to move out of New York
> *immediately* to find a nice little plot of land. Perhaps this can
> happen by next spring.
>
> I also cant stop thinking about how close man is to everything.
Even
> in a ridge valley full of coyotes, deer, beaver, and myriad frogs,
we
> are not far away and in many cases getting closer. With us come
our
> flatline sound generators. I suppose it just strikes me that its
all
> at this interesting balance, but one that we could tip voluntarily
at
> any time. It would not take but a single business deal to bring
> bulldozers to those ponds in Clanton.
>
> http://unnature.org/assets/2007/6/14/Clanton_AL.mp3
> (4.2Mb 3mins)
>
> Best
> David
>
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