Rice Paddy Symphony

Did you know that rice paddies are noisy at night? I’ve been here at my in-laws in August and heard the frogs but this is my first time to visit in June. The paddy is full of tadpoles and within the last few days, the green tree frogs (Miyama Aogaeru) started to croak. I didn’t realize the forest that surrounds us up here in the mountains was so full of frogs. I tried to get a picture but the little green guys don’t like to be found. The dark-spotted pond frogs (shimagaeru) in the rice paddy were not eager to show their faces either. I asked kindly and finally one poked its head above water. Can you see it in the picture?

Scroll down to the bottom for a close-up. You can listen here to find just how noisy they are at night. Before you listen, let me warn you it is a long track (5 and half minutes) because I wanted to get the whole cycle from relative quiet to cacophony and back to quiet again. In the beginning you can hear the roar of the river behind a few low croaks from the tree frogs. So, no, the static-like noise you hear in the background is not from a bad recording. If you have the patience, listen to the frog song increase little by little. If you don’t have patience then fast forward to 1:30 because at 1:35 you’ll hear the rest of the pond frogs join in until you can only barely hear the river. It finally quiets down again just after the 5:00 mark to a few croaks.

This repeats over and over all night from sun down to sun up. Maybe that is not 100% accurate. I was awake at 4:00 just before sun rise and it was quiet. Of course then the birds started…I’ll save that for another day!