Family Friday: Livin’ La Vida Croak-a

This month Lucas Miller shares a fun, inexpensive, and family-friendly activity. Our last home backed to a creek so we had the luxury of listening to the frogs’ serenades nightly there. We’ll need to take a trip to listen to their beautiful night music now but I assure you that it is well worth it. What a great way to help children experience nature!

It’s spring. Yes, the birds are singing—and so are the anurans (“frogs and toads” for those of you who didn’t study zoology). They’re out there filling the spring nights with their croaks, peeps, trills, honks, clicks ,and various other noises. If you think all frogs go “ribbit,” then think again. As Archie Carr, my zoological mentor, wrote, “Frogs do for the night what birds do for the day; they give it a voice. And the voice is varied and stirring; one that ought to be better known.”

In case you didn’t know, it’s really only the boy frogs that you usually hear. Sure, the girl frogs make some sounds that roughly translate as “Keep your hands to yourself, bub!” but what you hear at the edge of a wetland or pond are the songs of the males.

But don’t feel bad for the girl frogs and, boys, don’t get all high-and-mighty. The boy frogs are only singing to impress the girl frogs. Yep, if you could understand what those lovelorn males were saying you’d hear something like, “Hey, good lookin’; I’m over here!” and “I’m a hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin’ frog, baby!”

As a child, I spent untold hours in the neighborhood creek, pant legs rolled up, in search of what I might find. I’d catch crawdads and minnows to be sure but it was the frogs that made my heart leap.

I went on to major in zoology and specialized in herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles. I also croaked, peeped, trilled and groaned for a mate of my own. Now that fabulous mate and I are rearing a couple tadpoles of our own and we want to share with them our appreciation of the natural world.

So some night this month, we’ll turn off the screens, grab flashlights for all, and head down to the slimy green pond in the neighborhood park. We’ll listen to the love songs of amphibians and look for the shining reflections of their little buggy eyes in our flashlight beams.

I don’t know if my kids are going to major in zoology like their old man. Frankly, I’d be surprised if they did. I do hope that we’ll make some memories and that my children will see that their parents value all kinds of animals, be they blue whales in the ocean or the little frogs right there in our own little part of the city.

If you want to give it a try too, you might want to know what exactly it was you heard out there. The National Wildlife Federation has an awesome webpage where you can choose your state and sample the calls of your native anurans at FrogWatch USA.

NWF’s FrogWatch USA also provides an opportunity for those kids who really get into frogs and toads to participate in actual scientific research. You can find all you need to know at FrogWatch USA but basically it consists of taking a half hour each week to visit a certain spot and make a few notes on what you heard and what the night was like. The information your budding biologist provides really can help scientists in their research to help amphibians.

Perhaps we’ll see you out there. Oh, yeah, don’t forget to wear your old sneakers – you might get muddy!

Lucas is a professional children’s author and songwriter from Austin, Texas. Check him out at www.lucasmiller.net.

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