Puddock Hill Journal: Entry #1
This week, the song of the peepers came alive at the house we call Puddock Hill.
Spring peepers are small tree frogs that emerge from their winter slumber this time of year. The males climb up tree trunks and as light fades call raucously for a mate. On warmer evenings they grow more active.
We returned from a winter in California to the welcome signs of early spring: bright daffodils and forsythia in bloom; a wash of squills casting parts of the lawn in blue hues; early natives such as bittercress cropping up near woodland edges; and the first cherry and star magnolia trees putting on a show. (Our saucer magnolia won’t participate this year. Its buds suffered severe frost damage a week before we returned.)
The first part of the spring peepers’ species name (Pseudacris crucifer) derives from Greek for “false locust,” a reference to their shrill mating call. The second word, “crucifer,” means “cross-bearing,” for a distinctive marking they carry on their backs.