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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

peeping too early





The trouble with being a male spring peeper is that your amorousness is controlled by the outside ambient temperature. If the temperature feels right, you're in the mood. (The same is true for human males except for the temperature part.) So male peepers can feel frisky any time of the year, it has nothing to do with the calendar, it's the thermometer: not too hot, not too cold, ahhhhh just right.   

We're having a lovely mild early December—perhaps yet another sign of climate change—and some male peepers have awaken from their winter torpor and are crooning for a mate. My guess is that the females are not really interested. It IS December after all and freezing weather is surely on its way. I suspect the females are smart enough to wait. 

I have read that male peepers that stir too early, run the risk of burning precious energy reserves and may starve to death when they return to their slumber before true spring arrives.

There's a lesson here somewhere, but I'll let you sort it out. Perhaps a little Johnny Mathis will help.




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