Country diary: This frog chorus is a purr, not a ribbit | Mark Cocker

Lightwood, Derbyshire: It's frogspawn season, and what a delightful thing it is to stay for a while at the pond, just watching and listeningI'm wondering if frogsong is the most wonderful sound in British nature that is now the least known and certainly the most underrated. I should add that I'm not talking about the silly soundscape used in cartoons and other trivia, which centres on a note transcribed as ribittt: common frogs never make that noise.Their music is a soft, continuous purr that, for all its quietness, has an extraordinary impact. And it's not always quiet. A friend remarked recently that frogs near him sounded "like a Harley Davison rally". He exaggerates, but I know what he means: there's a touch of the distant motorbike in many pond choruses. Continue reading...