I’m going to rephrase an old English proverb about children and suggest that male green frogs should be seen and not heard. Unfortunately, the reverse seems to be true for those in our ponds that are now loudly calling for females.
I spent 20 minutes Friday looking for four male frogs hidden in our upper pond. Their efforts sounded like bad banjo players doing call and response challenges. When his turn came, each frog would seemingly pluck an untuned string to play a single, short, and low “GAH-um.” (It also can sound like a human clearing a phlegmy throat.) The calls came from different parts of the pond, and I couldn’t find any of the players, even with a large lens.
However, a slight movement allowed me to detect the camouflaged cutey shown below, which I think is a female enjoying the commotion. She’s certainly a northern green frog (Lithobates clamitans melanota), our native subspecies of green frog (Lithobates clamitans).
I think that she’s a female because of her silence while invitations were being issued and her small tympanums (exposed eardrums), which were about the same size as her eyes. (In males, the tympanums [or tympana] are about twice the size of the eyes.) (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 2, 2023.)