Frog Songs

WARNING: This blog post doesn’t even pretend to be profound. It’s just pure enjoyment of God’s creativity!

This evening I walked out to one of the ponds, and was amazed to hear how vigorously the frogs
were singing! I managed to sneak right up to the edge of the water without disturbing them, and realized that the racket of frog sounds is actually made up of several distinct voices.
I don’t know much about frogs at all, but I think I’ve heard that the reason they chirp is to attract a mate. I found myself grinning as I pictured the gentlemen (or maybe they’re females, I’m not sure) who were producing the different sounds.

Away to my right, there was a rather debonair frog whose song sounded almost exactly like, “Pretty birdy!”, repeated over and over in a see-saw voice. Ostensibly this was a mistranslation, and he was actually saying, “pretty froggy, pretty froggy.” One must hope that this admiration was directed toward the lady of his choice, and not a desperate attempt to gain the attention of any females in the vicinity. At any rate, he did have a fine voice.

From the rushes to my left came a unique call that can only be described as a combination of a creaking noise and a rippling scale. It seemed probable to me that the individual producing the sound was as enigmatic as his song. Doubtless he sang of a life of adventure and thrill, though without being very particular about the details.

Directly at my feet was the Scientific Suitor. All I heard from him was a series of beeps, emitted mostly at regular intervals, with an occasional pause. Quite possibly it was a form of sonar, and he had to stop every so often to listen for an echo. Clearly he did not pretend to be romantic like his one neighbor, or imaginative like the other; his policy was to present himself in a predictable manner which would most efficiently attract a lady of sense. Hopefully the said lady had better eyesight than I, for although I was quickly able to localize the origin of his voice, I could not by peering into the weeds, discover him.

And so, they flattered and trilled and beeped away, each at the top of his lungs, and it was really quite impossible to predict which would be the most successful with regard to the females, who no doubt were tittering and giggling along the sidelines. Personally, I thought that the combination of the three songs was the most enchanting.