A Bayou Serenade!

The Bayou is loud tonight! The Songs of Spring are ringing in the night air! This brings back memories of sitting on the screened front porch just listening to the sounds of the night. Not only are the crickets chirping from the mulch in the rose garden, the locusts (cicadas for those not from Mississippi) are buzzing in the treetops. Then there is the cacophony of frog voices rising above the Bayou. The old Bullfrogs with their deep-throated thunder, the high pitch of the Tree Frogs, the raspy almost clicking sound of the Leopard Frogs and the shrill warble of the American Toads can only mean one thing..Spring romance! Each Spring, the small pond is filled with frog and toad eggs..the little black dots surrounded by the gooey, gelatinous blobs are the frog eggs while the strings of eggs are from the toads. These eggs will hatch into the millions of tadpoles and eventually morph into adult frogs and toads. By tomorrow morning there will be millions of eggs in both tiny ponds and any other suitable water area. Suitable can mean anything that holds water..buckets, ditches, flower pots and even the birdbath and dog's water dish. All are considered nurseries to frogs and toads..a place to raise tadpoles!

The American Toad loves to hop around the garden most of the year just minding its own business. It eats a ton of bugs so I welcome it. The Leopard Frogs are shy and tend to hide during the day while the Tree Frogs want to be near the house. They take advantage of any outdoor light fixture. It is not uncommon to find them on porches and patios. But the old Bullfrogs stay for the most part down deep in the Bayou. Their rhythmic booms echo over the marsh and through the tall pines. I think I love the Bullfrogs the most. They remind me of the pond at my childhood home. There the Bullfrogs would croak day and night as they tried to tell us how to run the world. With the state of the nation and world today, the leaders could probably learn a thing or two from the frogs..if we could only get them to agree to listen!

I used to complain loudly about the toads especially. Their trills are almost deafening but it was the masses of eggs that they produced that bothered me. The ponds would literally be filled with the gelatinous strings of eggs. These strings would be attached or even woven through any plant or stick in the pond. I always hated pulling this mess from the water lilies. I would get my boys to go out with scoop nets to catch the toads and move them to a pond down the road a ways. Not that this did much good for the next night, it seemed as if they were back and had brought their friends! Then one evening, it dawned on me. Yes..I would have a mess to clean but with this mess was a blessing. I could hear! The shrill song became a music to my ears regardless to what was to be the next day. I was blessed to be able to hear their songs. Since then..I love to hear the toads, frogs, crickets and any other Bayou critter that wants to sing for me!

Frogs croaking, toads warbling..music..sweet music to the ears of this country girl from the Deep South. A Bayou Serenade! Like in the post from June 19th..A Froggy Symphony!