Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans)

August 6th, 2014. 

Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) 

Walton County, GA

At least three Green Frogs were living in the container. All but one slid under the water when I looked but this one stayed around a little longer.

Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans)

April 11th, 2013. I was on my way to check plants in the greenhouse. We have several water containers near the door to the greenhouse that serve as breeding pools for the Southeastern Chorus frog (Pseudacris feriarum). On this day, however, a Green Frog (Lithobates – formerly Rana – clamitans) was sitting on the surface enjoying the warmth. We know that Green frogs live in these containers but don’t often get the chance to see them. I was lucky enough to manage to get my camera and back to photograph this frog.

Two subspecies – the Bronze frog (Lithobates clamitans clamitans) and the Northern Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans melanota) – are recognized. The back of the Northern Green Frog is covered with brown or gray blotches whereas the back of the Bronze Frog has no blotches. Based on the fact that there are dark blotches on its back, this frog is a Northern Green Frog.

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Identification Resources: University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: Green Frog/BronzeFrog (Rana clamitans)

Wilson Shoals: WMA: On A Gray And Rainy Afternoon

September 8th, 2012. A cold front was passing through and it was gray and rainy but… We drove north with the idea that we’d emerge behind the front and get some sunshine. We found ourselves at the Wilson Shoals Wildlife Management Area that we’d visited in July.

Unidentifed mushroom. These very small mushrooms, barely two to three inches tall, were growing in a patch of moss and lichen on an almost vertical embankment beside Hunt Camp Road.

A closer view. 

We found Polygala curtissii (Curtiss’s Milkwort) blooming along the ridge in several places beside Hunt Camp Road.

A closer view of this milkwort flower.

Although not formally documented as occurring Georgia, this looks remarkably like Rhododendron carolinianum (Carolina Azalea). Some bushes had just a few blooms.

Eurybia sp. (Eurybia surculosa – Creeping Aster?)

Lobelia puberula (Downy Lobelia) with raindrops.

Hunt Camp Road drops down into valley with a small creek. The area along the creek is quite moist and we made some interesting finds.

Lithobates - formerly Rana - catesbeiana (Bullfrog). When we got out of the truck, we heard a splash. Not expecting to see anything we were surprised to see a bullfrog sitting in the water.

Monotropa hypopithys (Pinesap). There were a few pinesap plants along the embankment above the creek. They weren’t, however, as impressive as the plants we photographed at Dockery Lake.

Seed pods of Chimaphila maculata (Pipsissewa) that had bloomed earlier.

Chantarellus cibarius (Golden Chantrelle) in the leaf litter along the bank above the creek.

A small, leathery bracket fungus growing on an exposed tree root above the creek.

A coral fungus, probably Ramaria botrytis.

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Identification resources:

Southeastern Flora:

- Polygala curtissii (Curtiss’ Milkwort)

- Lobelia puberula (Downy Lobelia)

- Monotropa hypopithys (Pinesap) 

- Chimaphila maculata (Pipsissewa)

 

Alan Cressler:

- Polygala curtissii

- Rhododendron carolinianum

- Eurybia surculosa

 

Distribution:

United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database:

- Polygala curtissii (Curtiss’Milkwort)

- Rhododendron carolinianum (Carolina Azalea)

- Eurybia surculosa (Creeping Aster) 

- Monotropa hypopithys (Pinesap)

 

Related posts:

- Wilson Shoals Wildlife Management Area: July, 2012 

- Wilson Shoals WMA: Painted(?) Buckeye Fruiting 

- Pinesap (Monotropa hypopithys)

It’s That Time Of Year Again: Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

He turns up every year at about this time. Perched above a window by the patio. He arrives a couple of weeks before the breeding season. Then, about now, the breeding season starts. It’s not unusual to find him, and his friends, at various locations around…

Water container garden on the patio. Just revving up for the evening. Then…

at full throttle. Luckily you can’t hear him. He’s a raucous little fellow; you can hear his call here. (In this, and the preceding photo, you can just see the bright yellow color on the inside of the hind leg that is a diagnostic characteristic for identifying Hyla chrysoscelis).

Sometimes he calls from above the window too.

They breed roughly from May to July. It’s not unusual to find 1 to 2 dozen on the patio at the height of the breeding season. A loud chorus e-v-e-r-y night. Even more so, and louder, after it rains. They like shallow water. We like to joke that they’d be happy with a saucer of water. After the breeding season, you’re lucky to even see them again until the next breeding season. I was lucky enough to find one in September…

in his normal pose on a leaf stem but also...

spread-eagle on a leaf.

There are two gray treefrogs in the United States, the Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) and Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis). Hyla chrysoscelis is distributed more widely in the eastern United States than is Hyla versicolor; Hyla versicolor is not found in Georgia. An interesting piece of trivia about these frogs is the fact that Hyla versicolor has twice the number of chromosomes than does Hyla chrysoscelis.

Hyla chrysoscelis may cross-breed with another treefrog, Hyla avivoca (Birdvoice Treefrog), in Georgia. The call of the H. crysoscelis x H. avivoca frog is similar to, but softer than that of Hyla chrysoscelis. We’ve had the good fortune to have seen and heard all of these frogs.
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Identification resources:
W. W. Knapp: Frogs and Toads of Georgia
- Hyla chrysoscelis (Cope’s Gray Treefrog)
- Hyla avivoca (Birdvoice Treefrog)

Distribution:
Amphibiaweb:
- Hyla chrysoscelis (Cope’s Gray Treefrog)
- Hyla versicolor (Eastern Gray Treefrog)
- Hyla avivoca (Birdvoice Treefrog)

Related post:
- Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri)

March 24th, 2012. We returned to the Piedmont NWR to check on plants we saw on March 10th and took the same route as on our last trip. We took Starr Road from GA-83 south on through the Oconee National Forest into the NWR. We drove through Tribble Fields to the bridge over Little Falling Creek and then north to Pond 2A. We returned the way we’d come and then took the first road on the right down to the Round Oak – Juliette Rd, drove east and then back into the NWR on the first road on the left. From there we drove north to the intersection with Sugar Hill Road, turned west and forded Stalking Head Creek. We then drove north and took the first road on the right to ford Stalking Head Creek again, east past a small pond and southeast to meet Sugar Hill Road again and then east to GA-11.

While I was wandering around photographing wildflowers, W wandered across the road. After a few minutes he called, ‘You might want to see this.’ I went over to where he was staring into the plants looking for something. ‘It’s either a mouse or a frog.’ We both started searching. It was a frog, or rather, a toad. It had taken cover in the shadows under the plants so we started herding it out into the open. Now, herding frogs/toads is like herding cats. They don’t cooperate but we were lucky.

Anaxyrus fowleri (Fowler’s Toad). It moved out into the open although it still blended into the leafy background.

A closer view.

It didn’t really care for all the attention and hopped off. We corralled it a few feet away. It thought it was escaping by backing down into an opening. Unfortunately for it, the opening was a shallow hole.

Here it’s sitting in the hole.

*****

*****

W picked it up and we were able to take some close ups. It was very patient with us although it does appear to have a slightly disinterested, if not disgruntled, look. After W held it for me to photograph, I held it for him and then we released it back into the weeds. (Since toads may release bufotoxin from the parotid glands, we did make sure to wash our hands after handling it.)

W identified it as a Fowler’s Toad – as opposed to the American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) or the Southern Toad (Anaxyrus terrestris) - based on the location of the parotid glands against the postorbital ridge and the fact that there were three or more warts in the larger dark-pigmented spots. A forth toad, the Oak Toad (Anaxyrus quercicus) occurs in Georgia but is much smaller.

According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), the North American toads have been moved from the genus Bufo to the genus Anaxyrus.
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Identification resources:
- WW Knapp, Frogs and Toads of Georgia: Fowler’s Toad (Bufo fowleri)
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS): Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri)

Related Posts
- Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge: Atamasco Lily (Zephyranthes atamasco)
- Jasper County, Georgia: Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops)
- Jasper County, Georgia: New Life – Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum) & Green-and-gold (Chrysogonum virginianum)
- Piedmont NWR: Flowering Dogwoods (Cornus florida)
- Piedmont NWR: Bulbous Bittercress (Cardamine bulbosa)
- Piedmont NWR: A Wildflower Miscellany

Tadfrog

This post was submitted to House of Herps #8 hosted at the House of Herps homebase.
Go on over to read great posts on our herp friends.

We have a man-made pool on the ledge above the creek specifically to provide a breeding pool for frogs. We know that Southern Leopard (Rana sphenocephala) and Southeastern - formerly Upland Chorus (Pseudacris feriarum) frogs - and Cope’s Gray (Hyla chrysoscelis) treefrogs have been happy(?) customers. I see the eggs and I see the tadpoles. After that I don’t see much – or only rarely. The chorus frogs and the treefrogs leave for parts unknown.

The Southern Leopard frogs stay around but they are very shy. As soon as I walk into the clearing around the pool, I see frogs hop off in all directions: into the undergrowth if they are mature frogs or back into the water – if they’re in the process of losing their tails. Even if I try and sneak into the clearing, they hop off before I get into camera-with-zoom range.

Rarely, very rarely, one makes a mistake. I sneaked into the clearing a week or so ago but, as soon as I got within about 10 feet of a frog, it would hop into the underbrush or back into the pool. I would see them frog-kick their way into the deeper water out of sight. Sigh. On this occasion, a dozen or more desperately hopped back into the water simultaneously.

One poor little fellow, already in the water, was confused by all of this furious activity, felt a need to go in the opposite direction from where it was, and hopped out of the water to land almost at my feet. Always an opportunist, I took complete and shameless advantage of it and got some photographs.

At my feet, right in the middle of the photograph.

A closer view.

A close up. It’s a ranid and although there are two spotted ranids – the Southern Leopard and the Pickerel (Rana palustris) – our consensus is that it is a Southern Leopard frog. It didn’t seem fazed to be out of the water and didn’t panic when I finally persuaded it to head back into the water.
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Identification resources:
Knapp. Frogs and Toads of Georgia
- Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)
- Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris)

Related post:
- Frogs at the Pool

Frogs At The Pool

A year or so ago, W and J dug a pool on the ledge above the creek to provide still water for frogs to breed. This has been quite successful. We know that Southeastern Chorus frogs (Uplands Chorus frog; Pseudacris feriarum), Southern Leopard frogs (Rana sphenocephala), and Cope’s Gray Treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) have bred in this pool.

Normally the pool looks like this. The water level is even lower in the middle of summer.

But after 3 inches of rain, it looks like this.

Normally the frogs that gather near the pool jump into the water or into the undergrowth out of sight and I haven’t been able to get any photos.

Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)

I don’t know whether this young Southern Leopard frog was waterlogged and not thinking straight or whether it simply thought that since it was under cover it couldn’t been seen. Wrong! Admittedly I didn’t get a photo of it when it was in the open but I did get photographic proof that it was a Southern Leopard frog.

Southern Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus)

I was quite surprised to happen upon this Southern Cricket frog (Acris gryllus) that posed for this photo. It is usually quite difficult to get close to a cricket frog but this one allowed me to get a macro shot. Cricket frogs don’t breed at this pool but in shallow water further along the creek so it was a surprise to encounter it here. It is a handsome specimen.

It is interesting that Walton County is not included in the range for the Southern Cricket frog. We should only encounter the Northern Cricket frog (Acris crepitans) here. However, thanks to John Jensen at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for confirming this identification.

Identification resources:
- Frogs and Toads of Georgia: Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)
- Frogs and Toads of Georgia: Southern Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus)
- Personal communication: John J Jensen, Georgia Department of Natural Resouces
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Southern Leopard Frog: Rana sphenocephala

Moving in or overnight guest?

Last night as we were leaving for dinner, W noticed this Southern Leopard frog sitting on the edge of the whiskey barrel. I had my camera with me and managed to get this shot; it’ s not the greatest but it was taken in low light. When I tried to get closer, the frog slipped gracefully into the water and out of sight.

When we got back, I checked again. There it was, sitting half out of the water. I managed to get much closer and used flash to get a shot. Apparently it felt much safer in the dark. It didn’t move.

When I checked this morning, it didn’t appear to be there. Just an overnight guest, I guess.

Identification resource:
- Frogs and Toads of Georgia: Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)

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