Spring peeper calling, Cote

If ever there is a more challenging critter to photograph than a Spring Peeper, I don't know what it might be. To be sure, some animals are so rare that you'll almost never be in the right place at the right time, but with peepers, they're amazingly common and, at this time of the year, so obviously noisy that you can't imagine why they're not visible, even though they're right in front of you. Except, I've learned, they're actually not. Peepers have the ability to play the ventriloquist, throwing their powerful voices off to one side or another, so they're never where you think they are. And they're so small and well-hidden that even if you're looking right at one, they're easy to miss. Tonight, however, in a vernal pool in the middle of a hayfield that I sometimes monitor, I got lucky and found one in full-throated song. He didn't even seem to mind being in the LED spotlight I carried. Good for him—star quality, indeed.