Remember when I said that a frog could be nestled within the canopy of the little potted Japanese maple on our deck and I might never see it? I mean, it was just a couple of days ago, a mere two posts back.
The next day (I’m a little slow on pasting right now,) I was watering that very tree and a green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) erupted from within and landed on the deck, obviously a bit taken aback by the deluge while it was trying to sleep. I finished watering and then returned the frog to the tree, not trying to convince it to be anywhere, just releasing it within the leaves. This is what it looked like:
Oh, it’s in there all right, and I took pains to position myself so it was visible, but at this resolution, you’re not likely to see it regardless. Here’s a tighter, full-resolution crop:
The immature katydid is just a bonus (and not spotted at the time,) but this gives you an adequate idea, I suspect. I took a moment to examine the other angles that I could exploit, but believe me, they were very narrow indeed.
This angle shows a couple of scars on the upper lip, which makes me curious as to what produces them – I’ve seen much more distinct ones before, on a green (aquatic) frog, same approximate location. Is this from a predator, or burrowing into something unyielding?
This is my favorite of the session, but it does give me the impression that I’m somewhere in the Amazon about to get blowdarted.
Yet as I took my leave, the frog, shifting position among the thin branches, gave me a friendly wave. Or am I reading too much into it again?
