DAILY LOCAL (Chester, Pennsylvania) 18 April 05 Frogs breaking noise ordinance? (Chris Barber)
It isn’t easy being a frog, particularly if all you want to do is start a family and settle down in the wetlands along Street Road in East Marlborough Township.
For the second year in a row, neighbors have complained to the township manager’s office that they are annoyed by or suspicious of the spring peepers’ mating calls, and they want something done about it.
Township Manager Jane Laslo confirmed last week that her office received a call from a resident complaining that he was kept awake by the noise. He inquired if the sound was a violation of a township noise ordinance.
Secretary Sally Duff, who answered the phone, said she told the caller to turn on the radio and listen to some nice classical music to block out the annoyance.
Last year about this time, Laslo recalled, she got a call from another resident who heard the noise and said he was convinced there was criminal activity going on. When he was told that it was the sound of spring peepers calling for mates, the man told her the sound was too mechanical to be something from nature.
The call prompted an overnight police stake-out, she said.
Laslo, in a phone interview last week, said she wondered how one deals with a team of frogs who violate the noise ordinance. Arrest them?
"We’re going to march those little buggers down to the district court," she said. "Maybe we could concrete over their pond."
As she reflected on the calls in a more serious vein, Laslo said she is amazed at people who move to the country and don’t realize they are going to hear natural sounds at night.
"It shows an abysmal lack of knowledge of country life," she said.
As word of the East Marlborough incident circulated around town last week, pundits had plenty of comments.
Insurance agent Tom Simpers, who was raised along Street Road next to the wetlands, said he’s heard them every spring for 63 years.
"What the heck? It’s their mating season. They have the right to a good time, too," he said. Simpers said the intensity of their call varies with the weather. "The wetter the spring, the louder the noise. So this is a super wet spring. They love the wet spring," he said.
Red Clay Valley Association Executive Director Bob Struble said he was aware of the call to the township office last year.
"I’m amazed it happened twice," he said. "They’re peepers. They’re small frogs with a mighty loud voice. I’ve seen them. The skin under their neck swells out and that generates the peeping sound much louder."
Struble said the mating calls happen in the spring only.
"They live in the ponds, wetlands, swamps -- anyplace they can get in and out of the water," he said. "It happens every year, and the past years have been pretty wet."
Spring peepers, according to eNature.com, are little frogs that are tan to gray with a dark X on the back. They are small, measuring about an inch long. Their voice is a high-pitched whistle, sometimes with a short trill. A chorus of peeper calls is like the jingle of bells.
The Web site says the chorus is "among the first signs of spring." They hibernate under logs and loose bark.
Struble said he finds the sound, contrary to complaints, a welcome sign of spring.
"You hear the spring peepers. Even if the buds aren’t out, you know it’s about to happen. It’s like the daffodils. It’s all part of spring. If you didn’t hear them, you’d think something was wrong. They never sounded like a machine to me. Maybe (the neighbors) will enjoy hearing it," he said.
Frogs breaking noise ordinance?