Strecker's Chorus Frog chorusPseudacris streckeri

Strecker's Chorus Frog (Pseudacris streckeri) is a seemingly uncommon frog from the South Central US.  Although I have lived in their range for much of the last 25 years, I had never seen or heard one until spring of 2012.

This spring, I was determined to find a real chorus of P. streckeri and to actually see and photograph an individual.  So on a recent trip to Arkansas, a friend and I committed to hunting this species down.  We found a patch of accessible land which purported to have healthy populations and after some heavy spring rains, we headed out to that spot.  Within minutes of arriving, we heard our first P. streckeri.

We waited around until just before dark and I waded out into the flooded, brushy field to get a recording and see this apparently elusive frog.   The chorus was deafening and there were P. streckeri calling all around me.  (The upward slurred "fingernail across a comb call is the Cajun Chorus Frog (Pseudacris fouquettei) that was also calling here.)

Here is the spectrogram for that chorus. (The horizontal banding is from a problem with the microphone cord.)

I had rolled up my pants legs and waded knee-deep into the cold water in spite of the 46°F temperature and cold wind.  I was surrounded by Strecker's Chorus Frogs, but I never saw a single individual. As far as I could tell, they were calling from the base of clumps of vegetation and anytime I got close to them,they dove under the murky water.   Unfortunately, the park we were in closed at 8 pm, so we had to get out quickly and didn't have time to perform a more thorough search.

Oh well, better luck next year?

© Chris Harrison 2013