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loud, noisy frogs

22 15:10:56

Question
We moved to southeastern coastal North Carolina last year.  We have a large wetland in the backyard.  Particularly after a good rain and when it is warm, we can hardly sleep because of the racket of three different sounding frogs.  One sounds like a bird chirping, another goes "whah!" and sounds just like a baby crying, and the other is a funny clicking noise - almost like a constant cranking - very loud.  We have hundreds, if not thousands of all these critters and the noise is incredible.  We would just like to know what these frogs are so noisy about, and perhaps what kind of different frogs they might be.  I have only seen some really tiny tree frogs, and a few typical looking bullfrogs (huge) in the water.  Any ideas?

Answer
Hi,
I'm sorry, I cannot tell you what species of frogs these are. I assume that the one calling like a bird is Hyla avivoca, the Bird-voiced Treefrog, but I'm by no means sure.
However, I can tell you why they are so noisy: they are calling for a mate. Warm weather and rain is a sign for many frog species to begin to call and to mate.
I have found a list of frogs common in North Carolina, maybe you can identify the frogs from there:
http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?menuselect=none&sourceTe...
I hope this was of some help to you
Jennifer