Friends of Wachusett Mountain is a non-profit group dedicated to conservation,
environmental education and land stewardship at Wachusett Mountain.
Peepers!
Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) Monitoring
At Wachusett Mountain and across Massachusetts
We are looking for volunteers interested in monitoring spring peeper calling intensity throughout their breeding season. Typically in Massachusetts, they begin calling in late March, or April, but often they call most regularly in May. Calling is very dependent on weather conditions and we hope to collect data from Nantucket to the Berkshires to really find out what variability there is in call timing across Massachusetts.
Photo of study site
Data Collection Sheet
USGS map of study site
Closest online weather station
Chart detailing 2006 findings
Volunteer Requirements:
Select a site where you know spring peepers breed in good numbers that is on public land or you have permission to monitor the population. Please do not trespass.
Listen for peeper calls and collect call intensity data for at least 15 consecutive days during their breeding period. Input data into the data sheet that can be downloaded here: SpringPeepers.pdf.
Provide 1 or more digital color photos of your study site.
Provide a locus map on a USGS topographic map (sent by email to scott@friendsofwachusett.org is preferred but mail could work too).
Find out where the closest, accurate, weather station is to the study site. We need to be able to download daily weather data from a local site that includes, temperature, precipitation, and humidity. Provide us a link to the data.
Any data submitted is not guaranteed to be posted on our website, but will be appreciated. We will try to post data from sites represented from across the state. Priority will be given to locations that are located within other Massachusetts State Parks and Forests and/or when the volunteers provide a lot of data from one site, not a little data from many sites. Data will probably not be completely presentable until mid-summer of 2007 unless some volunteers will help with data management.
Interested volunteers should contact Scott Smyers from the Friends of Wachusett Mountain at scott@friendsofwachusett.org and make sure to type something about "peepers" in the subject field.