News Release Archive
NOVA SCOTIA MUSEUM--FROGWATCHERS-THE SPRING PEEPER
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Spring is here - the proof is in the Peeper.
The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History says that the familiar
harbinger of spring, the Spring Peeper, has officially announced
spring!
Frogwatchers have reported hearing Spring Peepers calling in two
places in Nova Scotia. On March 22 at 2 p.m., Maggie Crocker, a
grade six student at Annapolis East Elementary School, heard a
Peeper call in a ditch near her home in Wilmot, Annapolis County.
On the same date, at about 3 p.m., Ryan Martin, a grade three
student from Balls Creek Elementary School near North Sydney,
also heard and saw a Peeper in a swampy area in his back yard.
Both students are part of a truly Nova Scotian environmental
education program in which thousands of frogwatchers across the
province are keeping an ear open for these tiny treefrogs and
tracking their awakening across the province. The first time they
hear a Peeper call, frogwatchers phone into a 1-800-frogline at
the Museum of Natural History in Halifax.
This a second provincial Frogwatch, so museum officials can
compare the dates that the Peepers started to call this year with
those of last year. It is interesting to note that March 19 was
the first Peeper report in 1995. The first Peeper was reported
from Jordan Bay in Shelburne County on that date. Yarmouth and
Shelburne County tend to hear Peepers first because, the
treefrogs wake up in relation to rising temperatures and those
counties warm up first in the spring.
Surprisingly, the first reports this year were from Annapolis and
Cape Breton counties. The dates, however, do correspond with last
year's records in which first Peeper reports from around those
areas were from Wolfville on March 22, and Alder Point near Point
Aconi, also on March 22. Both these areas tend to warm up quickly
because of microclimate conditions.
Frogwatch is a joint effort of the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural
History, the Clean Nova Scotia Foundation and Envirosphere
Consultants Ltd. The program is made possible through the support
of Wildlife Habitat Canada, Canada Trust, Environment Canada,
Nova Scotia Department of Environment, Seagull Pewter and Unitel.
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Contact: Sue Browne 902-424-3727
E-mail: educnsm.brownesj@gov.ns.ca
trp Mar. 25, 1996 - 3:55 p.m.
