Friday Evening Frog Hikes
It’s everyone’s favorite time of year here at Cape May Point State Park. It’s like the Super Bowl for naturalists. It’s Frog Season! Sometimes frog season starts in February if the weather is mild. Extremely cold tolerant wood frogs start their quacking mating calls. Usually, March is warm enough for tiny spring peepers, chorus frogs and cricket frogs to join in the chorus! April is warm enough for all the common New Jersey frogs to sing.
Frogs are believed to be the very first vertebrates to sing, although it is sometimes hard to imagine a tiny, adorable spring peeper calling in a swamp full of Jurassic monsters. Today, the frog chorus is at risk from pollution, development, and mysterious fungal diseases. Frogs require clean fresh water for their eggs and tadpoles. Cape May Point State Park’s frogs have been wiped out multiple times by ocean flooding. Amazingly, the frogs have always recolonized the area once the ponds were sweetened by rain. On warm, rainy nights, the songs of male frogs desperately seeking mates can be deafening!
Please join us as we celebrate everything Froggy at Cape May Point State Park!
Bring your Flash Lights!
*Meet At The Cape May Point South Shelter
*Pre-Registration is required. Email Matthew.pelligrine@dep.nj.gov