I’m supposed to be working on the weekly post right now, but I heard a noise outside and, since it was nearly 11 PM, I thought I’d check – you only get one chance to be eaten by a bear, you know? Though despite my cavalier attitude in the preceding sentence, I was cautious and went out slowly, checking the area with the headlamp carefully, finding nothing at all that might have made the noise. Doesn’t mean much – could have been a falling branch or something of that sort. But on returning, right alongside the door into Walkabout Studios I found a small frog, surprising me a little even though it shouldn’t have. I managed to capture it and bring it in for a studio session, for which it was not at all amenable.
This is a spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer,) and while it’s February, it’s also supposedly 10°c out there and raining gently, though it feels a couple of degrees warmer to me. Peepers definitely get an early start in the spring, or in anything that seems like it, so this wasn’t as odd a find as I initially thought upon seeing it. This is one of only two frames taken in the shallow dish that I use as a ‘setting’ for studio work with little critters, and I only managed two because this little guy wasn’t having it, and would pause for no more than ten seconds, usually less, before leaping away. Which is why I was doing this in the bathroom, since this provided a lot fewer places to hide. The first frame that I obtained was this:
Yeah, that’s a small scrubbing brush on my sink – the peeper continually leapt away towards the wall over the sink, and so I surmised that it was aiming for altitude, trying to climb higher, and switched over to another setting.
This is almost an acceptable natural setting, if I crop out the teal planter edge peeking in, and if you’re ignorant of the plant species, which is a neverdie (Kalanchoe crenata) and native to Madagascar, which these frogs are not. It was what I had available indoors that might serve to disguise the background, but the frog wasn’t any happier on this and kept leaping to new positions, so I gave up after a few minutes and went to return it outside. There, I thought I’d make one last attempt, and carefully coaxed it onto the coral bark Japanese maple, thinking it might be okay for a short while in the tree. Set the transport container down, switched on the camera and the flash, turned back and… gone already. Nowhere in the tree, and the ground around it was ideal camouflage for something the size of a smaller coin, so I figured I was done with this subject.
On a whim however, I decided to check out some of the other trees, because the conditions were kind of encouraging to peepers, and this did indeed pay off.
This is a neighboring tree, actually the dead one that nonetheless served as a favored roost for one of the Carolina anoles throughout the summer and fall. Just a little too far to be the same frog seeking shelter from the annoying paparazzi, and actually the second of three that I found with only casual searching; I even heard a couple of sporadic calls.
I figured I’d take a few minutes because it really wasn’t bad out and there wasn’t anything that I should have been doing instead, and found something dangling from another tree, firing off a few frames of this new subject.
Seeing the pale grey color with the legs dangling and watching it twist in the tiny breeze, I figured this was probably only a molted exoskeleton, but after a few moments it reanimated and scrambled back up the web strand it was dangling from.
Some form of tiny crab spider (Thomisidae,) though I wasn’t shooting with the macro lens nor inclined to do a full study, so this is all we have. Spiders are surprisingly cold-hardy as well, often reappearing at temperatures even lower than this. Had I not already released (lost) the peeper, I would have collected this spider to provide a meal to the frog, just to show there were no hard feelings. Well, towards the peeper – the spider would have been shit out of luck.
Finally coming back inside, I stopped right near where I’d first found the frog and checked the Magic Bucket, the trash can right outside my door for all the smellier, fume-ridden things I produce with my various pursuits – it only had a couple of paper towels and a small dead beetle in it, but as I shook it gently, this little guy popped out.
Yep, another Carolina anole, which means that even in winter I should be checking this damn thing regularly. No idea how long it might have been in there, so I carried it over to the greenhouse (where several of its brethren are already spending the winter) and dropped it off inside – there would at least be a certain level of warmth maintained by a small heater, as well as plenty of water and whatever little insects happened to be available, especially since on the warmer days we open the vents, and the citrus trees are still blooming and attracting pollinators.
But okay, back to what I should be doing…