Friday Night Sounds

Well, prior to just hearing the sound of my beloved Rangers losing in overtime, Beth and I enjoyed some night sounds at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Our intention was to use our newly acquired knowledge from our recently purchased book The Calls of Frogs and Toads by Lang Elliott. The core of the refuge is closed at dusk, but the roads on the perimeter allow for some listening. The most vocal frog of the night was the ubiquitous Spring Peeper. While listening to the frogs, I finally added a Woodcock to my year list. Beth had never heard the peenting of a Woodcock. Unfortunately, this guy just peented and we never got to hear his courtship display flight.

We drove to another area to listen. We were rewarded with our only other frog species of the evening - Northern Gray Treefrog (pictured). I've heard Cricket Frog, Southern Leopard Frog, and Chorus Frog at this refuge in the past, but tonight was not our night.

With the frogs being relatively quiet, I decided to try out my Barred Owl impression. I gave a few calls which elicited some laughs from Beth. She said that it sounded like a Barred Owl, but with the tone of my voice. Well, regardless of this, it seemed to work because a distant Barred Owl called back several times. Way cool! With that, we called it a night!