At Oregon’s South Beach State Park last month, I heard a chorus of frogs hidden among the grassy dunes. Following the calls, I found a few dozen Pacific tree frogs (Pseudacris regilla) in a shallow ephemeral pool where the males were calling loudly in an effort to attract females. When I stooped low to record a video, they were so loud I should’ve been wearing earplugs.

A few of the males got lucky too.

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These frogs can be active all year when conditions are right. My night at the state park coincided with a stretch of very warm weather that coaxed the frogs out of their torpor. (The daytime high in Newport was 62˚F, a new record for the date.)

Winter weather in coastal Oregon and northern California is often wet and chilly, but low elevation areas rarely experience freezing temperatures. For someone who grew up in Pennsylvania and spent several winters on the Alaska Peninsula, “normal” winter still includes ice and snow, so the climate along Pacific Ocean remains somewhat novel. Seeing frogs in January, especially, enhanced that feeling.