Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Mystery Frog

I'm not sure about the identification of this little frog. I went to this excellent site, and also looked through the Ashton's excellent fieldguide, "Handbook Of Reptiles And Amphibians Of Florida". I'm still stumped. Nothing really jumped out at me as a definite ID.

I've been cleaning up the "garden" lately, pulling old useless fence and bits of junk that have slowly built up in weedy corners. I seem to have an endless supply of sun rotted black flower pots tucked here and there. The frog was in a 5 gallon bucket of old scallop shells that I was saving for my aquaculture filter. When I flooded the bucket to rinse the leaves and debris out, up swam this little guy. My assumption is he was passing the winter there.

I had the camera set on macro so I could get in close and the frog kept jumping from my hand to my shirt as I focused. At one point he lept and I thought I had lost him somewhere in the grass at my feet. I looked and looked, but could not locate him.
Then I looked at my camera.
He had jumped onto the camera and squeezed in between the lens hood and the actual lens, so I had to unscrew the hood carefully to recapture him.
I let him go without identifying him. I don't know if he's a very young version of some frog I know or if he's one of the handful of very small frogs that inhabit the southeast like Cricket Frogs or the Florida Chorus Frog.
Whoever he was, it was a nice diversion from pulling fence and garden junk.
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19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clearly, he's in Special Forces. They like to remain anonymous.

Happy New Year, FC! Your party looked like it had all the makings. I could almost taste those wings. My, but it's pleasant down here, rain and all.

R.Powers said...

Vicki,
47 here today so hopefully your St.Pete rain will slide on south ... it was here yesterday.

pissed off patricia said...

Please send some cool weather down here. It feels and sounds like spring. Cardinals are doing their mating calls and buds are appearing much too early.

As to the wee frog, if we could hear his call we could ID the little rascal. I would go through all my ID books but it seems you've covered that pretty well. I'll try to remember to show his pic to Mr Pop when he gets home. He may have some ideas.

R.Powers said...

POP,
Thanks in advance for the help! It's delicious up here today, I hope it makes it to ya'.

SophieMae said...

You've done it again! LOL! I snapped a wee frog the other day for whom I was planning on posting an ID enquiry. But blogger still won't let me post pics and I was too lazy, at the time, to do the photobucket thing.

It's just about to hit 50 up here, after about 40 last night. Feels colder, though. Has all this recent rain reached your pond? I'm about ready for some sunshine again.

R.Powers said...

SophieMae,
I see the "Cracker Telegraph" is working again :)
55 now at 12:36 as I munch my lunch of Blackeye peas and rice. I just finished pruning my blueberries and it was nice to work and not sweat for a change.

Deb said...

Cute little frog, whatever it is!

55 sounds pretty nice to me right now; 25 and sunny here.

Anonymous said...

The rare Amazon camera frog...

R.Powers said...

Deb,
It really is a cutie ... hopefully I'll see it again.

Likes2mtnbike,
Sonyius hopplensius :)

kathy a. said...

what a cute little guy. he looks just like a regular frog, but so tiny. maybe a tree frog? he seems to have the pads for climbing.

Anonymous said...

Here's something interesting, FC: I was at Sparkleberry and clicked on your url link to get back here and see what's new- or if anyone knew the name of camo frog- and this is where that click sent me: http://www.charlotteharbortravel.com/

Try it! Go to Wayne's, click url at your comment and see what happens! Are you secretly running a travel agency? A covert operation?

A beautiful partly cloudy, partly sunny day here on the Bay. I'm loving it.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Vicky. He's got to be special forces. That is why he hopped on your camera... checking you out!

I'm off to see "your" travel site now, LOL!

The warm weather we're having makes me think of spring. I'm actually thinking of planting tomatoes in pots right now, something I might regret if we get a freeze in Feb.

Anonymous said...

p.s. 5 more days!!! (g)

R.Powers said...

Kathy A,
Maybe Swampy can ID this guy. He is cute tho.

Vicki,
Alas, that chamber of commerce site was here before me. I did come up with my site name independently and then discovered they existed when I did my first Google search for my site.
... I think they have a bigger budget.

Laura,
I was thinking the same thing about gambling in the garden.
5 more days ... won't it be cool if they pull it off :)

Rurality said...

You didn't try squeezing him to make him sing?!

Leslie said...

"Nothing really jumped out at me as a definite ID."
Ba-dump-bump.
Ching.

R.Powers said...

Rurality,
He was so tiny. I was afraid I might vaporize him.

Leslie,
Har!
Welcome back!

Paintsmh said...

Oh, what a cute little frog. So cool.

R.Powers said...

Paintsmh,
He really was all those things. I just wish I had taken a few more pics before releasing him.