Green Frog photos from 2012

[UncleChester]

Some Northern Green Frogs, Rana clamitans melanota, from last year. (click on images for larger size if desired)

Found late march while I was out looking for breeding American Toads and Leopard frogs. The Greens weren't in breeding mode yet but the big ones had mostly woken up from a very hot few weeks,


Early May, floating in some scum at the edge of the stream behind my house. The stream has almost no current to speakof most of the time (except after a big rain) and has about a foot of muck to sink into at the bottom. Probably ideal for wintering in for a frog, but awkward for a wading human trying to get close to the frogs,


This lady is messed up. She summers in a small ornamental pond and I've been watching her for 3 years now. She used to be totally black but as she's grown the black has spread out to be blotchy and green is showing up. Her iris is near black, not the usual shiny gold,


Late May, the males are out and eager to breed. This guy wouldn't call for me, but his manly forearms and yellow throat indicate he's ready to do battle for the ladies,


Early June, they'll call even in the middle of the day. He took some encouraging though, when you get this close to them they do stop and try to remain quiet. I did my best attempt at imitating a calling Green Frog and he just couldn't resist calling back. After a couple of minutes of this, he actually jumped at me. They are territorial, especially when in breeding mode, so I'm pretty sure he thought I was competition. I conceded the area to his might and impressive vocal sac,


Since the tadpoles of a Green frog take at least 1 year to mature this far north (possibly 2), this one is the result of the 2011 or maybe even 2010 breeding season. Taken mid June it's very vulnerable right now to the army of ribbon snakes patrolling the edge of the pond as well as the adult Green Frogs that seem willing to jeopardize their own genetic survival by eating their own young,


This is the standard way to spend a hot Ontario summer afternoon, hanging out on a dock with your toe dipped in the water and a mosquito on your leg,


I've seen my Gray treefrogs shed many times, and I've seen a few wild Gray treefrogs shed, but I had never before seen any sort of Ranid shedding.Then I found two in the span of a week. The second one is nearly done, but you can still see the skin bunched up in the corner of its mouth,


A couple of partially axanthic Green frogs- these two are missing yellow pigments in their heads, making for a pretty blue. I'd assume they are related since this is a genetic thing and they are from the same pond. The one on the left is a big female, and the one on the right is a decent sized male whose colours made him deserving of the portable white studio treatment,


Not pictured here are the dozens of tiny leeches I earned taking this photo. I spent a good half hour picking leeches off locations that I'd rather not have to pick leeches of of. I now carry a salt shaker with me to the pond. I think the result was worth it,


Big male still out early morning in September,


A couple from the mucky ponds at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, early October. Thousands of plants to look at and I was still chasing around frogs (and a toad and a snake or two),


We had a 'recreation' theme at our local camera club where we incorporated an older photo into a new one taken at the same location (inspired by the 'Dear Photograph' thingy). Of course I had a few frog ones. This was taken mid October where the water was much colder than in the original, the leaves were much more colourfull, and thankfully there were much fewer leeches,


Thanks for looking at my Green Frog year in review.