With the rains that have come, take some time to stop at the top of Peninsula Rd between van Blommestein Park and the wetlands in Rondevlei. The frogs have started calling as they take advantage of the water levels to breed. There are three species calling and are easy to tell apart if you sit and listen for a while.

The Clicking Stream Frog is the commonest and produces a single click that is repeated – numerous frogs call from different directions as if they are throwing their voices. So listen for a “click”, “click”, “click”.

Common Caco has started to call and is a tiny frog. Its calls sounds like a marble bouncing in a bottle; a metallic sounding “click … click .. click, click, click”. This is probably the most distinctive of all the calls and doesn’t sound like any other frog.

The third frog that has just started calling is the Cape Sand Frog; a continuous metallic sounding “Click, click, click” that sounds like it is echoing – they are very loud frogs for their size. These frogs rely on clean water bodies to breed in and in the dry summer months dig into mole heaps to avoid drying out.

So with the frog breeding season take the time to stop, pull over to the side of the road , wind down the window and listen to all those frogs calling their hearts out. This is one of the most accessible sites in Cape Town to listen to frogs – enjoy!

A Common Caco – listen for these “marble in a bottle” sounding frogs that are starting to call. Now that you know just how small they are you will be impressed by how much sound they can make!