This must be one of the eeriest sounds on earth. It can only be heard here for a few nights in May, and this evening I recorded it on the bank of the Eramosa River for your listening pleasure. The video is mostly dark.
And this IS a pleasure! *BIG grin* That's a sound I miss since moving to the city 20-odd years ago...they had been wiped out from the pond behind my parents' home in Michigan, by the way, and last spring, my mother called excitedly to tell me the spring peepers were calling in the pond for the first time in about 5 years. There's hope!
Maybe not the typical energy highway music, but along the quiet country back road I take to and from work, it carried me away somewhere.
I listened to a snippet of that Brian Eno track on Last.fm, and think you might be right about the toads, though I'm not certain. Interesting music, so I'm going to get ahold of a copy and let you know what I think when I've heard it in full. He might have changed the pitch or speed slightly (or even used a different species of toad!). If I go to the cottage the weekend of May 19 I'll be sure to record some spring peepers, the tiny frogs we get up there in the spring. That sound is different, but just as unearthly.
I miss it some years too. All it takes is a short walk to the park on a balmy May evening, but too often I forget. It's nice to have this for posterity.
I had never heard them in great numbers until one May evening about seven years ago when I happened to walk to the park. The park here is wooded, and the dried leaves on the ground were rustling with thousands upon thousands of toads hopping toward the river. It was difficult to walk without stepping on them. The water itself was churning in a vast orgy. Apparently every toad in the city of Guelph had converged on that spot. The noise of their calls was almost deafening. It would be impossible to estimate their numbers. Probably billions of American toads across the continent engage every year in this rite of spring. It would not be an enjoyable experience for the faint of heart, or anyone afraid of a small, cool, wet body hopping past one's toes
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I listened to most of your new CD today on the way to and from work, cranked up with the window rolled down. I was transported somewhere. I am in awe.
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I listened to a snippet of that Brian Eno track on Last.fm, and think you might be right about the toads, though I'm not certain. Interesting music, so I'm going to get ahold of a copy and let you know what I think when I've heard it in full. He might have changed the pitch or speed slightly (or even used a different species of toad!). If I go to the cottage the weekend of May 19 I'll be sure to record some spring peepers, the tiny frogs we get up there in the spring. That sound is different, but just as unearthly.
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Thank you for sharing this with us. :)
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