On Saturday, I heard a spring peeper. Not the usual chorus of spring peepers. It was just one. One lonely peeper, yelling in the darkness, hoping for a response.
It probably a lonely feeling. Being the first of your kind to wake up in the spring. You climb a branch, announce your presence to the world and… nothing. Total silence. No one else is around.
Think of it. He’s got to be wondering if he is the last of his kind. Or maybe he showed up late and everyone else has moved on. There are many possibilities, none of them good. So the poor little guy was just sitting there, peeping through the night.
And now, he seems to be gone. I have checked the past couple of evenings and there has been no sound out of him. It has been a little chilly the past couple of days, so maybe he thought better of the whole getting up thing and went back to bed. Or maybe one of his fellow peepers woke up and told him he was way too early.
And when you think of it, being early is probably not going to help his chances of reproducing. I mean, for other peepers, having that one wake up early and start yelling has got to be a bit annoying. You’re trying to get that last day or two of rest and there’s some guy out there just screaming his little lungs out, disturbing everyone else. It would be pretty annoying and nature is not likely to select in favour of the annoying gene. Maybe in people, but not so much in animals.
So I guess he has figured he should just go back to bed for a while. Wait a few days until others like him start to wake up. Maybe not appear quite so eager.
In any case, I heard him one night and now he seems to be gone. I hope he’s okay. I also hope he comes back soon. And beings some of his friends with him.
