Monday, July 11, 2016

Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans) In The Garden


July 2nd – 9th, 2016. A few years ago, we had to relocate a watergarden barrel during some renovations. I decided to move it back to its original location just recently.
The barrel had a couple of inches of wet leaf litter in the bottom. I tipped the leaf litter out onto the ground and moved the container to its new location. 

When I went back to get its bricks and plant container, I realized that a frog – a Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) - was sitting in the leaf litter near my foot. I picked it up and placed it back into the barrel. Some duckweed, re=introduced into the container, soon spread over the water’s surface to provide cover. 

It wasn’t long before the frog was comfortable enough to climb out in the late afternoon and…


sit on the side of the barrel to hunt for insects. Its tympanum, much larger than its eye, indicates that it is a male.


Recently, he has also begun to hunt at various times during the day.

When he’s not sitting on the side of the barrel, he may often be found…


floating in the duckweed.


Occasionally, he will make its way to another shallow container to hunt.

Recently a second Green Frog has joined the first one in the container where I’ve seen them siting together on the edge of the barrel. 

Reference:
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory: Green/Bronze Frog (Rana [Lithbates] clamitans]

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Mighty Hunters


June 27th-30th, 2016. I found a Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) in mid-June. It had arrived near our water containers for the annual breeding season was chilling out on a window frame. Usually, that’s where we see them. Just hanging out. 

A few nights ago, I happened to look out closer to dark to find a couple actually…

hunting on the house wall. Their poses let me see the bright yellow color on the inside of their thighs that is a cardinal characteristic for identifying this species in this area. The patterns on their backs indicated that they were different frogs from the one I had seen in mid-June.

Reference.
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) 

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