It's Too Quiet!

Normally this time of year here in Western Kentucky, you can not hardly stand to sit outside for the cacophony of the frogs! I have lived at my current address for over 20 years. My pool too is usually full of tadpoles or at least frog eggs by now. This spring however...nothing! It has been a wet spring too, which I would think would be great for frogs!
I have stood out on my porch night after night for a few weeks now only to be met with an eerie silence! Also, every year there are frogs clinging to the siding on my porch under the light, catching bugs...this year, nothing. I have not seen even one of my little friends thus far this spring and it concerns me. My little water garden usually has a bullfrog or two croaking loudly day and night....also absent.

Are any of you finding this lack of frogs in your area? Have you noticed? Shouldn't this be cause for alarm? First the bees....what next? I mentioned this to my co-workers and one of them has a several acre lake on her property and she said that she had noticed the silence as well and had not seen any bullfrogs!

This to me is strange and alarming! Your thoughts?

As the
Ice Age
approaches
summer will
start appearing
later and later, so
just wait a little bit.
The frogs will arrive.


David Grouchy

They could still be in hibernation. Unless.... read this:

"When frogs go silent, ecologists listen"

www.chron.com...


Keep us posted on their progress.


[edit on 11-5-2010 by manta78]

Ya no monarchs here in Santa Barbara. I live right next to a monarch grove nature reserve. I forget what the reason was, but someone told me a reason why there isn't any this year. There is suppose to be thousands of them. Weird huh?

Here in my area in Kansas we have more frogs than normal and less squirlls. Also it is crazy cold here. Usually this time of year we are in the 80's. It's barely broken 70 in the last few weeks, with no 80's in the long range forecast. Global warming maybe? Our winter was really harsh as well. I used to live in Alaska for a time and this winter here was worse than their winter. It's crazy.

Well, here in Louisiana we gots lotsa frogs! I even had a small bullfrog that lived in the puddle at the pasture gate for 2 months! We had a wet spring up 'til 2 weeks ago, now it's 95 and dry! I would very worried if it were very quiet here, too.

Aw, I'm sorry. I really, really love the sound of frogs. We had one the other night, which is very early for us. Maybe because it warmed up quick, so maybe that's why. And there's been a lot of rain (plenty to eat) Hopefully, they're just late & will be along soon.

I have noticed it's been a cold spring around here in NW Ia here. Past couple of days the highs were in the 50s and the lows in the lower 40s. Should be in the 70s or higher now. After all summer is June 21st. It's like the weather is behind by a month or 2.

Also I noticed my spring allergy attack has only been a couple of sneezes. Usually there is a week or two when I need antihistamines. So far I like it. No mosquitoes either.

Currenlty, I ive in the south western plains. This is the first time I've seen mosquitoes as large as my hand. They are usually small and bite all over. I can escape the bird size mosquitoes, as you can see them coming. Usually, these pests are seen on coastal places or Alaska. I can't guess why they are soooo big this year. Guess every place has their unique strangeness. Sorry if I was off topic, just had to relate my experience.

It's been cold here in NW Ohio, but the toads have been out mating for over a month now, and I have a tub full of tadpoles my daughter got from a ditch that was drying up. I've got toads in my flower beds and one or two have been spotted on my patio in the evening. I've got a couple of friendly/pet toads that have lived in my yard for years now, but I haven't seen one of those guys yet. I'm sure they'll show up soon.

We have had a lot of days in the 70's' and 80's and rain like every other day it seems. There have been a few cool days, but nothing that would warrant there being no frogs. As I said, I would think that the conditions would be prime for frogs this year? I hope as some of you have said that they do show up eventually. My husband and I were outside at 4 am this morning, it was muggy and already 73 degrees yet deathly quiet....

There appears to be a link between UV radiation and the decline of amphibians, yet another site suggests that habitat destruction is the most obvious cause, another site claims there does not appear to be any "smoking gun" to explain this disturbing phenomenon, and a site called Save the Frogs seems to believe that pesticides are a big factor. Scientific American reports that nearly one third of the worlds 6,000 plus species of frogs are at the precipice of extinction, and PBS draws a thin green line, and reiterates what most of these other sites report, which is no one really knows what the hell is going on.

Thank you all for the replies and for the links. I have some reading to do, as this is truly bothering me! I love frogs and I love to hear them and I also know that they play an important role in scheme of things!

reply to post by Greenize


Sorry to tell you they just keep getting hit prior to getting on their lillypad's.

Frogger


Talk about "knee deep" in trouble.

I could not resist.

Absolutely nothing to contribute other than that due to the oil issue off the coast.

Perhaps that's contributory towards the tadpoles being gone due to fragile elements of the environment and as well so many swamps being drained.