In Vermont, Steve Faccio, a staff biologist with the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Woodstock, coordinates 12 volunteers statewide. This first stop on Darling's Whipple Hollow route, which runs through the West Rutland marsh and part of Clarendon, is a rich one. Individual spring peepers, well, peep. As a chorus they sound a bit like sleigh bells. There is clearly a chorus here, so Darling marks his forms with a three.
Darling sees some ducks, but they are silent.
The quacking is wood frogs. The shy wood frogs fall silent whenever a car drives by, and several cars drive past on this early April evening. There are not as many wood frogs as there are peepers. Darling can count individuals, so he marks them as a two. The ghostly sound is not a frog at all, but a snipe, a type of wetland bird.