They’re particularly common in woodlands adjacent to ponds, swamps, and cattail drainage ditches.

Hints of spring’s return are often given by the actions or sounds of the wildlife and fish in our region. When sucker runs begin to fill sandy holes in a river, fresh silver steelhead begin to enter the same streams, birds start to sing loudly, and grouse and woodpeckers drum away in the morning, you get the feeling that things have finally changed in Michigan’s outdoors.

But no critter announces this change of season better than a tiny amphibian called a spring peeper.

One of the earliest heralds of spring’s return is a very small frog with a pretty loud song it bellows out with a chorus of friends—too many to count. This is a collective sing-a-long that a DNR Wildlife Division frog brochure described this way:

“The tinkling of bells is a popular description of the spring peeper’s spring mating call. Spring peepers are one of the earliest callers among the dozen frog species found in Michigan. During the first warm evenings of spring in late March or early April through May, their distinctive single-note, high-pitched “peep” is considered a harbinger of spring. The intensity of calling increases as breeding time (nears) and can become a deafening chorus during humid evenings or just after a warm spring rain when many males congregate.” (Doesn’t the thought of a warm spring rain sound pretty darn good right about now?)

Only the male peepers call. They establish territories near the edge of permanent or short-lived wetlands. They may call from elevated perches on submerged grass, reeds, or shrubs near the water. The faster and louder a male sings, the more likely he is to attract a mate.

Saying this is a small frog is not inaccurate. Its length runs between 3/4 and 1½ inches. A peeper would fit comfortably in a teaspoon or sitting on a dime.

Peepers make their appearance while traces of ice often remain on their shallow breeding ponds. Spring turkey hunters sitting near a wetland edge waiting for a gobbler to come to their call are often serenaded by peepers.

The miniscule males do the singing. Males are smaller than females, but their ballooning throat air bladder makes them appear twice as large as it fills with air like a large bubble. Air released from the bladder makes the frog’s “peeping” sound.

These frogs are particularly common in woodlands adjacent to roadside ponds, flooded ponds, swamps, and cattail and bulrush drainage ditches.

Peepers eat small invertebrates such as spiders, ants, beetles and mosquito larvae, so they are useful in that regard.

Their shrill, bird-like peeps, or whistles, can be heard for a great distance. But get too close to their site, and they will cut off their singing suddenly. They have some sort of early warning system that tells them to be quiet when danger is present, but if you stay still and wait for awhile, the serenade will soon start back again.

Singing is the prelude to mating for this tiny amphibian. After their early-spring breeding season is over, peepers move upland to moist woodlands—hiding among the shrubs and living on insects and other small organisms.

Seen up close, they are generally brown, grey or green with dark markings on the back which form an “X” pattern.

The spring peeper’s call is one short high peep, as their name suggests, and can usually be heard from March until June in any areas near bodies of water such as ponds, streams or marshes. Remember that in many places it is illegal to take wildlife out of the wild without the proper permits from local, state, or federal authorities. People should not release any captive reptiles or amphibians into the wild, either, as this disrupts the natural order of the site’s environment.

The best thing you can do is just get out and listen for the singing sound of lovelorn spring peepers as they vocalize their readiness for some amphibian amour. As the old Johnny Mercer song goes, “Jeepers, creepers—where’d you get those peepers?”

The peepers’ amphibian love song from the wetlands is your assurance that spring has indeed come back to Michigan.