Working my way through the folder of images that I need to do something with, and figured that it’s now time for a few more frogs, si? I mean, oui?
The first three to be featured all came on November 9th, when the weather became unseasonably warm and the frogs were out thinking, Damn, that was a short winter! This one, at least, should have known better given its perch.
A green treefrog of course (Dryophytes cinereus,) contemplating life on the branches of a laceleaf Japanese maple that was hitting peak autumn colors and not budding out with new leaves for the spring. It was still a good day for it, true enough. And yes, I purposefully chose this angle between the leaves – did you really think otherwise?
Scaring up one of these was also a purposeful act: I was wandering along the pond edge knowing that the weather would likely bring some amphibians onto shore, and it was simply a matter of spotting them when they leapt away and creeping up once they’d paused again. This is quite small, as the cypress needles and duckweed might indicate, roughly 15mm in body length. I’m still not sure what this is, but I’m leaning towards cricket frog from the warty skin and size – it just lacks any of the markings that tend to distinguish them. That would make it either a southern cricket frog (Acris gryllus) or northern (Acris crepitans.) There are potentially some much less common species around here that look a lot cooler, and I’m keeping my eyes out for them, but so far nada.
This one went unidentified until just now, since its hiding place in the debris at the edge of the pond obscured all identifying markings – but then I went back through the various frames that I’d gotten and found, in one too far out-of-focus to keep (I’m due for a sorting session again,) the white spot on the tympanum (eardum) that pegs this as a southern leopard frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus.) Far larger than the previous maybe-cricket frog, as evinced by the cypress needles again, this one was a lot less cooperative in letting me get better pics, leaping away as I gently tried removing some of the stuff that it was hiding beneath. It’s a shame, because we deserve a better look at their markings.
And now going back, wow, to September 16th for this one:
I think I was posting too many green treefrogs at the time, which is easy enough – they’re perhaps even more numerous than the Carolina anoles. But the size of this one becomes apparent once you realize that it’s perched on a rosemary plant, provided you’re familiar enough with rosemary anyway. Or the proportions of the eyes, head, and legs probably says enough, too, but suffice to say it’s not any bigger than the maybe-cricket.
Oh, what the hell – let’s go even further back, because I keep seeing these images in the folder and not dumping them out.
This, and the following, date back to May 8th – 2023. Just never got around to posting them. But I remember hearing a Copes grey treefrog (Dryophytes chrysoscelis) calling in the backyard, and tracked the calls down to find these two already in amplexus, the position they adopt preparatory to mating. To my mind, the calls should have then ceased, so either I was wrong, or they settled their courtship right before I discovered them, or there was another in the immediate area. Which is possible, because they’re on one of the potted lemon trees right near an open water barrel. Leaving them be for just a few minutes and returning, I found they were finalizing their plans.
This is now right on the edge of the barrel and peering inside. Once the female (the larger one on the bottom) has chosen a suitable tadpole nursery, she’ll pause in the water and release her eggs, which the male will then fertilize externally by releasing his sperm; his position increases the probability of this happening, though at times you may find multiple males clinging to the same female, stacked up as it were. Had it not been a black barrel, I might have stuck around to record this for posterity (‘posterity’ being the screen name of this weird guy that keeps asking me for creepy amphibian pics,) but nothing would be able to be seen in such conditions regardless of lighting. Some pics here will give you the idea though, despite being a different species.
That’s a few more down, but not enough. We’ll be right back after these commercial messages…