Pluke

I'm going to start off by saying that this is about the Grey's Tree Frog around my house in Lower Michigan. Bare with me this is my first blog, ever. This is pretty much their natural habitat, maybe not their REAL natural habitat, but the one they choose to go to around here. The ones in the pictures you're about to see range between 1" - 2 1/2" Inches, maybe bigger? You'll know the big one when you see it. These guys come in as soon as the sun goes down. When it goes dark and the porch lights are on, that might as well be the dinner bell. They sit out here all night and eat moths, flies, and pretty much any insect they can fit into their mouth.. it's a smorgasbord.

Here they are.. this first one is of a younger one coming from out of the gutter and the green one is sleeping on a Staghorn fern I have out on the porch. (Sorry for the terrible quality, my camera wouldn't cooperate that day.) The plant isn't very healthy, that's why it's hanging outside.. fresh air and what not.. it's recovering, the frogs love it.



Now.. here's one leaving the fern to make his venture to the light and another in the weeds on the ground below the fern.. which also found his way there. I tried to get more pics of him but he jumped and literally vanished, I couldn't find him for another picture until later when he was at the light, you'll see.



Hmm.. a couple of the other porch residents. Dudley on the left and Plug on the right, there are more but I have enough pics to show as it is. They're supposed to be barn cats but they prefer lounging on the porch, constantly. Honestly I can't remember them ever getting a tree frog, the frogs are pretty much invisible to them. They're camouflage is amazing and if they don't move they'll rarely be spotted by a cat.



And finally, the light. I took all of these pictures tonight and it must have been a good night, because I had three out here. I usually only get one or two.



You can clearly pick out the big one, which I'm assuming is female. I'd say it's about 2 1/2" possibly 3" inches, the little one next to him is well over an inch. The one on the plant hanger was placed there, he's the one that was coming off the fern.. I made him nervous when I was taking pictures and he went into some spider webs so I pulled the webs off and set him there. They do go down on the hanger all the time on their own, so he doesn't mind. They really don't mind being handled all the much either, but I avoid it unless I feel they're in harms way. The last picture with the light was about 15 minutes before the little frog made it there to meet up with the others. Another cool thing about these guys is that I hear them calling outside quite often, especially if it rains. They love it.

That about wraps it up, felt I had to share these little guys with you. Maybe I'll do some other blogs about other frogs/toads I get around here.. I haven't seen ANY toads this year which is extremely unusual. I think it's because it's so dry. Almost every time it rains though I can count on getting baby Bullfrogs, Green frogs and wood frogs on my porch. In the Spring I get peepers as well. There are swamps, lakes and rivers all around me.. in the spring it gets so loud with frogs that it's deafening to walk down my road. It's pretty intense.

Hope you guys enjoy, -Pluke

(Here's one last frog on his way home.) :P