Toppie ventures outside into the night to capture the sound of Spring Peepers.
Noun 1. Spring Peeper – a small brown tree toad having a shrill call heard near wetlands of eastern United States and Canada in early spring. The Hyla crucifer tree toad – arboreal amphibians usually having adhesive disks at the tip of each toe; of southeast Asia and Australia and America. Genus Hyla – the type genus of the Hylidae; tree toads.
Toppie did not know that peepers are toads, not frogs (he finds this hard to believe, but what does he know?), but he grew up hearing the creatures sing their once-a-year song until he left Podunk Junction for the big city of Rochester, NY.
As heard in the Smellcast, episode 157, Toppie actually has a Zoom recorder — but truth to tell — he hasn’t yet learned how to use it. So instead, one fine Spring night just days ago, Toppie grabbed his trusty old video camera to capture a wonderful night sound-scape, switching back and forth from the camera’s condenser mic to a shot-gun mic.
Listen for the trill of an unknown creature — likely some kind of frog (most likely not a Peeper — or maybe like the Peeper — another toad species). A goose flies by and then fade to silence.
Write to Toppie at Smellcast@aol.com. Leave a comment right here on Toppie’s blog. Friend Toppie on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.
Click the link below to listen to the Smellcast, episode 166.
Tags: country, frogs, gay podcast, geese, nature, night sounds, peepers, smellcast, sound, soundscape, spring, toads, toppie smellie
The Smellcast 
May 3, 2011 at 2:25 pm |
Love that sound. I could listen to it all night. I have a setting on one of my white noise machines called “amazon lagoon” that sounds similar. I would have thought they were frogs and not toads as well. Learn something new every day.
LikeLike
May 3, 2011 at 8:04 pm |
Yeah, same here Jay — it’s a great sound — music to my ears.
LikeLike
May 3, 2011 at 2:38 pm |
See, that’s what happens when I post something before listening to the whole podcast! Thanks for the shout-out, but I hope if that really happened, you would have been a little louder. LOL.
LikeLike
May 3, 2011 at 8:05 pm |
Harr! Trust me, I would have screamed like a little girl!
LikeLike
May 4, 2011 at 2:04 pm |
Me too! Remember, you only have to run faster than the slowest guy.
LikeLike
May 6, 2011 at 5:18 pm |
I really enjoyed this, but then again, I’ve bought cd’s of loons that goes on for 2 hours or so. Very soothing.
LikeLike
May 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm |
I like those sorts of environment cd’s too Kalvin. Would love to hear loons in real life, but I don’t think we have them around here.
LikeLike