What frogs get up to after dark.

No sooner is spring sprung and so are the frogs! They usually croak at night from 10:00 p.m until 2:00 a.m. At first I used to collect them in a bucket and put them over the wall, hoping they would head on over to the vlei (stream) behind my house. My efforts were futile. These frogs are fussy. They want a swimming pool, full of clean, filtered water, and they are determined to mate where they choose.

Over the years I have learnt to fall asleep to their croaking and mating calls. It is a little like trying to sleep on a train. You actually concentrate on the shunting noise, (how could one not), and after a while it lulls you to sleep – well, the croaking of the frogs is the same. (For me anyhow).

Although the croaking stops at about 2:am, the mating goes on until 9:am (at which point I grab my camera). The whole process is finished when the eggs are produced. I must add that the male frog is resolute in continuing the species, so much so that occasionally the female dies in the mating process from sheer exhaustion. She has no strength left and drowns. Once the strings of eggs are produced, the frogs leave the pool and find a cool spot in the garden to recover. They return at night and then the croaking starts all over again. The poem I penned sums up the whole event. Believe me the sequence of the croaks is correct, I have listened to it hundreds of times!

A FROG'S TALE. 
Quaak … quaak … quaak …
Quaak … quaak … quaak …
Quaak … quaak … quaak …
Repeat 30 – 50 X
SILENCE.   (A mate has appeared on the scene)
QUAAAK…quaaak …
QUAAAK…quaaak …
QUAAAK…quaaak…
Repeat 100 X
SILENCE.
The End.  
(Seriously, it is what it is, and that is how the frogs croak it!)
~ Caroline Street.