Spring peepers began last week...Wednesday I think. In the evening. It is always just a more sure sign of Spring. Most years there seems to hardly be a heartbeat between the cold nights & spring thaw & the first peeps. Thursday was gorgeous & we found ourselves inherently near the pond where they trill as that is rather close to the greenhouse. This is always a spring delight -- working in the soil, with the seeds, the sun (when we are lucky some springs) coming through the greenhouse & the peepers are the icing on the spring nature thrill cake.
They silence themselves again when it cools - as it did Friday & Saturday. But we expect to hear them again today or tomorrow. Later on we don't hear them but it's somehow another little treat to see a random peeper (Pseudacris crucifer -- small chorus frog) hopping about in the field, the flower beds or making it's way into our harvest shelter. Sometimes they find their way to lettuces in which case we are glad not to accidentally cut them upon harvesting.
So often things around the farm -- Mother Nature's offerings -- have a duality of good & bad. Like most things on this Earth, including humanity. Spring peepers are one of those things that I have seen no bad half of the probable duality. They eat flies & such which is a good thing. If we found out they ate mosquito larvae that would up their good factor tremendously. Ladybugs are another of Mother Nature's gifts that I haven't seen a downside too...not counting the Asian Lady Beetle, which aren't really the same & do indeed bite. Dragonflies and blue bottles probably fall into this category too, as do fireflies...which are called twinklebugs around here, thanks to the younger set.
Which reminds me of the peepers. Apparently on Martha's vineyard, peepers are oft called "pinkletinks"; and in New Brunswick, they are called "tinkletoes." So I guess in a livelihood that allows us to share work space with twinklebugs & tinkletoes, that's doing pretty good.
They silence themselves again when it cools - as it did Friday & Saturday. But we expect to hear them again today or tomorrow. Later on we don't hear them but it's somehow another little treat to see a random peeper (Pseudacris crucifer -- small chorus frog) hopping about in the field, the flower beds or making it's way into our harvest shelter. Sometimes they find their way to lettuces in which case we are glad not to accidentally cut them upon harvesting.
So often things around the farm -- Mother Nature's offerings -- have a duality of good & bad. Like most things on this Earth, including humanity. Spring peepers are one of those things that I have seen no bad half of the probable duality. They eat flies & such which is a good thing. If we found out they ate mosquito larvae that would up their good factor tremendously. Ladybugs are another of Mother Nature's gifts that I haven't seen a downside too...not counting the Asian Lady Beetle, which aren't really the same & do indeed bite. Dragonflies and blue bottles probably fall into this category too, as do fireflies...which are called twinklebugs around here, thanks to the younger set.
Which reminds me of the peepers. Apparently on Martha's vineyard, peepers are oft called "pinkletinks"; and in New Brunswick, they are called "tinkletoes." So I guess in a livelihood that allows us to share work space with twinklebugs & tinkletoes, that's doing pretty good.
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