Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Derp Toad Revelation

Spring has come in all its glory, and as I work in my studio late into the evenings, I hear a voice in the distance through my one open window. It's a one-note voice, and all it ever says is:

"Derp!"

We've never actually seen the creature that says "Derp!" while it is engaged in the act of saying "Derp!" but it always sounds like it's coming from the neighbor's old swimming pool (unused by humans for over a decade; now more of a pond) and it sounds, well, amphibian. We do see toads pretty often and so we took to calling this creature the Derp Toad.

It's early in the season (and/or maybe the Derp Toad is just not feeling that friendly) and so there are lengthy gaps between its utterances, say a few minutes. I am tickled every time I hear it ("Derp!") and I have been growing more and more curious about the Derp Toad's true species. Last night push came to shove ("Derp!") and so I took to the Internet to find out. Bless these people who catalogue animal sounds ("Derp!"). Thanks to them, I now know that we are frequently visited by an American Toad (it has such a long, lovely tremelo song) and I now know that the Derp Toad is really a Northern Green Frog.

Sam says Derp Toad still sounds like a better name for it.

Sunday, May 03, 2015