Hello all,
Well it's 3 o'clock in the morning and I just got back from a solo mission to the marsh behind my house. In all the years I've lived here I have never gone back there to inspect the constant barrage of frog calls this time of year. Despite the stinking methane emissions and freezing cold water it was well worth it (picture me in the middle of a swamp in the middle of the night, with my shorts hiked up like underwear, and a flashlight in my mouth so I could work the camera - quite a sight I'd imagine...).
Here are the pics:
Gray Treefrog (
Hyla versicolor):
A pair in amplexus:
This guy was dead for no apparent reason (no physical trauma at all... weird). He was just floating on the vegetation:
My favourite find of the night, a Western Chorus Frog (
Pseudacris triseriata) (this one cost me an hour's worth of standing in the water waiting for a call so I could take a step in his direction - a tediously long process) *note the white stripe on the lip - characteristic of the Chorus Frogs:
Finally, here's a pesky little Spring Peeper (
Pseudacris crucifer). It's interesting to note how these guys respond to my attempt to mimic their calls. They quiet down when you approach (so they become hard to locate) but I can get them to return my calls so that I can locate them, works every time - very neat behaviour....
I hope you enjoyed! I have to go wash up now 'cuz I stink.....
Cheers,
Ryan
P.S. I also made some amazing sound recordings and videos; I might post them one day.....
Edit:
Here is a link to a video, just right-click the Gray Treefrog file and save it to your hard-drive. It's ASF so it might not work on all computers.
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