Frog in the garden

My roses do not smell much, they are beautiful to look at, but when the catalpa blossomed, it was heavenly.

The incredible yucca gloriosa  plants, growing in my garden. They are in bloom and I wish a had a smell-o-blog. I can put in photos, put in audio, but the smells...
The stems grow large. The birds and bees love them! The woodpecker whack away at the seeds late in the fall.

Trying to take a photo of my yucca, I nearly stepped on large a brown leopard frog. Hubby, out getting the morning newspaper from the mail box, was dispatched to find the camera.

Now, getting the morning paper for a man who is a bug magnet, is a difficult task. The deer flies would cart away a whole deer. This is why we've seen few deer on our lawn in summer. Deer flies prefer the hot sun. Deer prefer not being ravaged by deer flies. [There is a fawn on the neighbour's property.]

But the speed of the traffic is amazing. I cannot imagine why we don't have more accidents.

Inner thigh bright orange or yellow

Who is happy in this season? The frogs!
We have grey tree frogs, two on the back porch. I've never seen them so large. Englebert tree frog has disappeared, no longer living in the mail box.

The ones I found in Muskoka were much tinier.
These can be 3 - 5 cm and Englebert was that wide!
The teeniest are the spring peepers! I love their songs, too.

Gray TREE FROG

• Only found in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick.
• Call is short, bird like trill. (Check my video of Englebert singing! Their songs are lovely.)
• Calling begins in late spring
• Light green to gray
• Squarish, light coloured spot under each eye
• Inner thigh bright orange or yellow
• Breeds in wetlands

I nearly ran over a green leopard frog,
 like this, with the lawn tractor!

Can you spot the gray tree frog?

Frederick tree frog lives in the planter. Under it, perhaps, and peeks out. When the kittens walk by, or any of us, it ducks back under the lip of the planter.

A leopard frog I nearly creamed while cutting the grass on the lawn tractor. I put on the brake while it hopped off. Last time it was a wee bunny. It is dangerous for the critters. But back to the frogs!
Northern Leopard Frog

I caught him in my front garden. Had to grab a photo.

• 5 - 9 cm long
• Found in every province
• Call is a gutteral snore followed by a series of clucks, similar to a wet finger rubbing a balloon
• Dark roundish spots, encircled by a light ring
• Breeds in open, temporary or permanent wetlands
• Endangered in B.C. and Alberta

Camouflage!

Bull Frog

My brother and me and bullfrogs!

• 9 - 15 cm
• Found in all provinces but PEI and Newfoundland
• Call is a deep jug-o-rum
• Green to brown with no dorsolateral line across back
• Fold of skin from eye and around eardrum
• Male has bright yellow throat
• eardrum twice the size of its eye
• Breeds in permanent wetlands
• Tadpoles take two years to mature

Frogs ar amazing. Permeable skin, they take in water. They hibernate over winter in the muck of the pond.

bullfrog tadpole

frog's eggs in their protective jelly

Amphibious, they spend part of their lives in water, part on land. Frog's eggs are laid in a jelly-like mass in a pond. Susceptible to UV rays, they may be at risk from ultraviolet light as the ozone layer depletes. They are totally dependent upon temporary or permanent wetlands, and cannot depend upon lakes. The eggs are laid in ponds beside lakes, or flooded meadows in spring, where the water is calm. Herpetologists, scientists who study amphibians and reptiles such as frogs and toads, have discovered since the 80s that frog populations are

More camera critters #169!

diminishing with the destruction of wetlands.
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