My friend was helping me with curtains in a house we are going to sell (who knew curtains were supposed to be up a certain way and actually match things and be at a certain height?), so she was riding with me on a back road. It was a dark and rainy night with thunderstorm warnings when we turned off onto our back road.

We were chatting when I swerved to miss a frog. Honestly, I do this often for just about anything in the road be it frog, turtle, pet or even human, but usually try to drive better when I have a passenger. A sharp intake of breath and I thought I had scared her when she said, “I thought you were going to hit that frog.” (See how well I pick my friends!)

Turned out she had not seen frogs like that on the road before. Even without getting out I could tell that there were at least four species out that night. Leopard frogs, American toads and two smaller species were out.

One of those species had to be one of my favorites, the Spring Peeper. There are two subspecies, the Northern Spring Peeper and the Southern Spring Peeper. We have the northern one which is Pseudacris crucifer bartramiana and it is found all over the eastern USA and eastern Canada.

The small tan or brown peepers are only about an inch to an inch and a half. The females are lighter than the males who are also smaller than the females. The males also have a dark throat where the vocal sac is. The vocal sac expands and deflates like a balloon to make the distinctive chirping that many of us associate with spring.

And that chirping or peeping can be loud! Outside our house it can be loud enough to interfere with cell phone conversations. They are also known as chorus frogs and the calls all have to do with mating.

In a high density situation, they call louder and louder in a rising trill.

The males start calling not long after the ice melts in the spring. The frogs are very hard to see, but will call from the edges of shallow water near bushes, scrubs or grasses. These calls can be heard 1 to 2.5 miles away depending on the number of peepers.

Peepers live primarily in forests and come out at night to eat beetles, ants, flies and spiders. They must find a marsh, pond or swamp for the tadpoles. Typically the females will lay 900 eggs per clutch.

They hide the eggs under vegetation or debris in the water. The eggs hatch and transform into frogs in about eight weeks.

The spring rains bring out the mating urge and the frogs move to the road where it appears that there is standing water. Unfortunately, for them, this is not even a good temporary water supply.

And while the ecosystem is set up for Spring Peepers to be eaten by diving beetles (as tadpoles), snakes, skunks and larger frogs nobody really benefits when frogs are hit and killed by moving vehicles.

So, I then slowed down to weave my way around most of the frogs and, yes, I brake for frogs.

MJ Wixsom practices veterinarian medicine at Guardian Animal Medical Center in Flatwoods, Ky. For questions, call 606-928-6566.