by Alison Mitchell, Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation
Step outside and listen to the singing birds, admire the blooming flowers, or lean down and take a closer look at buzzing and crawling pollinators. There’s so much to see, hear, and take in – but why is spring such a time of natural abundance? It’s all about reproduction, of course!
Many New Jersey creatures take part in remarkable behaviors to attract partners in the spring. These behaviors are the foundation of much of the procreation in the natural world, and the sights and sounds are a wonder to behold. You may have already noticed the increase in the high-pitched songs of (mostly) male songbirds calling out in the hopes of attracting female counterparts.
“People associate springtime with birds singing,” says Tyler Christensen, Land Steward at Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space. “Birds create beautiful background noise, and sometimes we forget the real reason why they are singing – it’s mating season!”
Not only do birds sing to attract mates, they also (often) show off colorful feathers and participate in elaborate mating rituals! Group displays are known as leks, gatherings of male birds who perform certain behaviors to attract mates. In this state we’re in, groups of male turkeys, also known as toms, form leks in specific locations where they gobble and fluff up and rattle their feathers for admiring females. The exact criteria females use to eventually choose mates is unknown, but we do know they are expert critics judging by the results.
Mating season in New Jersey extends far beyond birds, of course. Snakes, salamanders, frogs, and other reptiles and amphibians are busy attracting mates in all sorts of interesting ways this time of year. Wood frogs, Southern leopard frogs, and green frogs are just a few examples of the amphibians who advertise themselves with calls in spring. Perhaps you have heard the mighty, evening chorus of very small spring peeper frogs as you pass their wetland habitats. By deflating and inflating air sacs, frogs in streams, rivers, and freshwater wetlands across our state are wooing females with incredible, distinct reverberations. It’s a symphony, and at times, a cacophony!
Some spring displays are even more dramatic than the peeps and croaks of frogs. Garter snakes, for example, emerge from hibernation in the spring ready to mate. Because female garter snakes are highly coveted, multiple male garter snakes will band together in a tangled ball with a female in the center. The males wrestle each other out of the way until one lucky snake successfully mates with the female. At this point, the other males lose interest, disentangle, and slither away in search of their next chance.
Around New Jersey, animals big and small partake in mating rituals and performative behaviors, from spiders to bobcats. We can hear and see them every day! But the natural world is made up of more than animals, of course, and plants have their own springtime mating agenda focused on attracting pollinators and ultimately dispersing seeds. Before insect pollination evolved, wind pollination was the most common mode of plant reproduction and that continues for many of the plants that still exist today. Pine trees are a prime example, producing trillions of pollen grains that enter the air every spring with hopes of being blown into receptive female trees.
And the brilliant kaleidoscope of colors we see from flowers? Like the colorful plumage displays from birds, flowers are putting on a show for the pollinators, drawing in busy bees and other insects.
Alarmingly, bees and other pollinators are in sharp decline. According to The Guardian, scientists have ascertained that the climate crisis, habitat loss, and pesticide use have badly affected all bees, the vast majority in the U.S. being our 4,000 native, wild species. For managed honeybees, which were introduced from Europe, a lack of nutrition, poor handling practices, diseases, and parasites have also taken a dramatic toll.
Every day, animals and plants reproduce, raise young, and live their lives, despite losses in habitat. It is never too late to fall for the natural world, and to fight for it! Let’s support efforts to bring back pollinators – and focus on protecting wetlands and forests and other important habitats so that we ourselves, and the generations that follow us, can fall in love with nature every spring, over and over again.
To learn more about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation at njconservation.org or contact us at info@njconservation.org.
