The willow trees along the pond bank were hosting lots of green tree frogs who were singing away from their lofty perch.
The randier green tree frogs were already in the water ready for action. The one above is just inside the pond edge, and below the willow where most of the other green tree frogs were hanging out.
The little frog above and below was no bigger than the last section of your thumb but was producing the most amazingly loud, ratchety sound. I'm posting ahead of looking him up, so if you beat me to the ID, hooray for you!
You can get an idea of his tiny size if you use the pill bug in the picture below as a frame of reference ... or use the snails, a dime would more than cover the snail shell.
The most obvious and seemingly most numerous amphibian down at the pond Saturday night were the toads. They were swimming everywhere and whenever one would meet another they would tussle together a bit. There was some serious toad trilling going on from the banks, logs, and tufts of wet grass.
The wrestling match when two toads met ended in both toads going off in opposite directions or ...
... a bit of Amphib -E-Harmony.
13 comments:
Amphib -E-Harmony! :0D
Great, great pictures!!
I didn't know frogs came that tiny.
Froggy porn - now I've seen everything.
Are these flash pictures? They're really great.
I guess the amphibs were too elated by the water to care much about you being there.
Cathy,
So tiny, but the loudest of the crowd.
Suze,
Actually I posted lizard porn a while back.
:)
Pablo,
Yes, they are flash. I had a slowly diminishing LED headlamp to spot the frogs/toads and to help the camera "see' the target for autofocusing.
I think they were blinded by love.
Late one night I was watching a tree frog hiding under leaves in a depression in the ground, perhaps 90 feet from the main north Florida east-west CSX railroad track. Coming from the east was a train--at night you can hear them blowing at crossings beginning several miles away--and every time the horn would blow, that frog would stick its head out of the leaves and answer back!
---
I prefer toads; to me, they have beautiful markings.
Wow, amazing frog pics. Our species assemblage around here is a bit different, but not any less magical.
By the way, I seem to remember a loud frog chorus in early August on the St. Johns River. Is frog mating a continual summer thing in Pure Florida? Here in Minnesotarctica of course they usually want to be done in a matter of weeks, lest the cold weather doom their offspring. I've heard it called "explosive" breeding. :)
By the way, Mr. Attitude says "Wow!" to your frog pictures. He thought their throats were eggs!
Whoa dude! Those are some great frog pics! Wonderful job.
Wow, you take amazing photos! Thanks for giving us a frog fix!
I can't get over how tiny they are, they look so big in the photos! great pics here, FC, especially for a nighttime setting!
Great pics! Glad your frogs are feeling spring fever - it's still cooold here!
Lesle,
I'm picturing a broken hearted frog as the train passed by in the night.
Neat experience for you tho!
Deb,
HELLO TO MR. ATTITUDE!!
Yes, our amphibs seem to do a lot of breeding throughout the warm months which is a over half a year of course.
Rurality,
Dudette, like, I don't have bald eagles in my back yard like some lucky folks, so I have to settle for toads :)
Thanks!
3C,
Thanks. This won't be my last night time visit to the pond. Stay tuned.
Laura,
Thanks! The little one was so very LOUD. I'm going to look him up online after this comment block is done.
Laurahinnj,
Oh, they are definitely feeling it. A coming attraction for you guys, but probably even more welcome after a long cold winter.
Growing up, we had tons of spring peepers in New England. It was extremely difficult to actually find them. They would fall silent at your approach, take forever to start singing again, and go quiet again as soon as you moved. I only managed to catch one in the act of singing once, and that took me over an hour. Were these any easier to sneak up on?
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