Many of you experienced the heat wave that lasted for a little over a week. It was miserable. It was likely miserable for the birds in the backyard, too, especially while attending to nestlings and fledglings.
We’ve always relied on ceiling fans and floor fans for our little bungalow, but this was the first time we were worried that this won’t be adequate as we age and the climate continues to warm.
Our backyard inhabitants, however, have no choices, though our sprinkler offers a little bit of moisture and cooling.
Before the heat became too intense, my first temporary escape was a late-afternoon trip to a rural Geauga County park that’s a much-loved old friend of mine.
It wasn’t as hot as our old, inner-ring suburb and I cherished the peace and privacy of a large meadow with no other humans around. Indigo Buntings, Field Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Common Yellowthroats…and enough quiet that I could easily hear every one of them.
Back here at home, however, that degree of quiet is only a dream. Birds compete with landscaping crews armed with leaf blowers and string trimmers while huge riding mowers struggle to maneuver on small front lawns.
Traffic on the nearby major street seems to increase every year and the bellowing of motorcycle ensembles roars late into the night. By day, I can see the windows and landing gear of ridiculously low-flying private jets preparing to land at the county airport.
And the birds try to sing over all of it.
We provide a very nice habitat for them in our back yard. There’s an abundance of trees – pin oaks, red maples, an inoculated elm, white pine and yes, the typical backyard Norway spruces. We have smaller trees, including spicebush, redbud, and serviceberry, plus many native perennials, vines, ferns, and sedges that form a miniature forest understory.
Deer routinely ate those native plants to the ground every year until we added a 6 foot chain link fence encircling the back yard without blocking the filtered light that reaches the ground.
It’s also a welcoming habitat for Wendy and me, too.
But we can’t help with the noise.
By midweek, it was too exhaustingly hot to drive very far in search of peace. Fortunately for me, there is a park area relatively nearby where I can go after dark, enjoy slightly cooler temperatures, and listen to songs from the natural world – my “local patch.”
Motorcycles roar down the winding road through the park as they do in the city, but when there’s less traffic, I can hear the silvery songs of Spring Trigs. These early season crickets are so small I have only seen them a few times.
They sing within clumps of grasses and forbs and seem to have a particular fondness for poison ivy. I imagine they are pleased that this park has poison ivy as large as substantial shrubs.
I’ve been coming here for years, and these tiny northbound singers were not present until recently. Throughout much of NE Ohio, they are moving north as the climate warms and are now singing even within sight of Lake Erie.
That in itself was delightful, but I was here to listen to frogs. Amphibian choruses would be singing just a short distance away near the boardwalk along a lagoon.
I heard the Green Frogs first with a few Bullfrogs farther out in the water.
It’s been very dry as well as hot in NE Ohio – we’re
technically in a moderate drought as of now, and the water level in the lagoon was
quite low. As a result, it was considerably easier to spot the Green Frogs than
I’d expected
Green Frog
Bullfrog
The multitude of Green Frogs alone would be an excellent reason to visit this boardwalk after dark, but there was a larger ensemble ahead.
Gray Treefrogs – my favorite amphibian singers!
They seem to descend from the woods to the ponds and wetland edges in mid-May and I find them in their temporary early summer residences into early July. They may be on tree trunks, in wetland vegetation, or on boardwalks, but unlike the Green Frogs, I never see them actually in the lagoon itself.
It’s a little challenging to determine how many Gray Treefrogs are actually calling, as I hear them almost nonstop in the darkness. Some call on slightly different pitches, which gives me a more accurate perception of the individual singers.
Because they're spread out along the shallow edges of the lagoon, there’s no way to count their total numbers in the vegetation and on the tree trunks.
It doesn’t really matter – it’s an impressive chorus that’s louder than all the Green Frogs and Bullfrogs combined!
Gray Treefrogs can be green or brown
I reluctantly respected the park system’s closing time of 11pm, walking back past the singing Spring Trigs toward my car.
I felt very fortunate for the option of spending time with the frogs at the lagoon, but sad for the backyard residents who have no escape from the noise and additional heat of my neighborhood.
When I arrived home, I sat on the back porch steps watching multiple species of fireflies flashing from high in the trees to down in the gardens. A young raccoon approached along one of our wood chip paths and strolled past my feet without even a glance. Shortly thereafter, an opossum purposefully proceeded up the driveway and past the garage.
We do what we can to create a welcoming space for all of them, but I wish we could help them – and us - with the heat and the noise.
Cleveland Heights and other Cleveland area residents, “Quiet Clean Heights” is working to address some of the noise issues I described in this piece. See their website at https://www.quietcleanheights.com/
