Inside the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth, Zak Mertz pointed to what he called a “very handsome” tiny brown frog camouflaged among the leaves in a terrarium.
A family spotted the little guy and brought him to the center in the fall.
“It got really cold before he was able to get into the proper spot for hibernation,” said Zak, the center’s CEO. “The homeowners were really nice. They spotted him. They brought him into us.”
Greg Mertz, Zak’s father and formerly the center’s director, is a wildlife veterinarian here. He spent all winter caring for this spring peeper, which are relatively common in Massachusetts near wetlands and ponds.
“He’s eating OK. His weight is maintaining, and he is negotiating his environment the way that he should if he was out in the wild,” Greg said.
And now, it’s warm enough for this little amphibian to get back out there.
The father and son carried the frog out into the woods behind the animal hospital, eventually coming to a spring peeper’s favorite place: a vernal pool. This shallow area of water was completely dry two days earlier, before some rainfall.
“By the next morning when I walked out here, it was a completely flowing vernal pond system,” Zak said. “And so it speaks to how rapidly the woods can change, especially in springtime, and what that means for the animals that live here.”
What most of us would think of as just a puddle in the woods is actually a crucial ecosystem for spring peepers and many other critters coming alive this time of year.
“It may seem like there are hundreds and thousands of these animals, but I can tell you it’s way fewer than when I was a kid,” Greg said. “We’re becoming so suburbanized, we’re breaking our woodlands up into little pieces, and it’s really changing the character of the populations of both plants and animals. So it needs protection, it really does.”
Vernal pools can be affected by road salt, he said. They’re also vulnerable to the increasing drought we’re seeing with climate change.
But this year, at this vernal pool, the frog they cared for all winter at least had a place to call home.
“So, we’ll put him right into some leaf litter that is just about the exact color he is,” he said, gently opening the jar and placing the tiny spring peeper on the ground.
The frog sat perfectly still on a leaf. Soon, his peeping would join nature’s spring symphony. They’re called spring peepers for a reason, but at that moment with the humans around … no peeping. Only some wood frogs a little ways off could be heard.
“With the wind, it’s gotten a little bit cooler. We heard them about an hour ago,” Zak said. “My guess is it’ll kick in later this evening. But right now we seem to be in a bit of a lull.”
When it’s less quiet, here’s what spring sounds like for Greg:
“The very first thing that I listen for are red-winged Blackbirds ,” Greg said. “After the Red-winged Blackbirds, the next thing I listen for are the wood frogs . After the wood frogs, I listen for the [spring] peepers . After the peepers, I listen for lots of migratory birds that are beginning to move in and beginning to make their nests. And so it includes everything from chickadees , which are not migratory, but year round. It includes the Eastern Phoebe . And then the last amphibian to make a messy sound are the American toads . And they have a long trill. They’re very loud. And that to me is sort of the end of spring, and we’re sort of beginning to move into summer.”
Summer feels like a long way off right now. But it’ll be here before we know it. Weeks can feel like they’re flying by, especially when there’s a lot going on. So there’s something to be said for taking a few moments every now and then to go out into the woods, and just listen to spring.
