When we finally got the rain!
Never been so close to a Bullfrog before!
Today we had strong thunderstorms that moved through the area with two Tornado warnings in the county just to the west of us. The rain came down hard given us some needed moisture into the ground. Guess this means that I will have to mow the lawn here soon?
Green Frog
Driving home from a friends house this evening, I quickly noticed many frogs along the roads!
I believe this is a young Woodfrog! Help if you know different!
American Toad
Seems like they might have been feeding on some of these mayflies that were dieing on the road.
These mayflies had a big hatch, they were everywhere!
Bullfrog will soon eat the mayflies!
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 
Jeez…could you get any closer to them?
Did you pucker up and kiss them, too?
🙂
20 June 2007 at 12:03 am
We got rain too. Hurray! I have been noticing so many different frogs and toads this week. I saw hundreds of tiny, tiny toads near the river 2 days ago. I don’t even know if they hatch like that or come from tadpoles. Anyway, a snake was enjoying the buffet!
20 June 2007 at 7:02 am
We got a long-awaited downpour yesterday, too. Not as much as we needed, but it made all the treefrogs start to sing again. I’d been missing their songs.
20 June 2007 at 8:11 am
Love the toads! Ribbit, ribbit!
20 June 2007 at 8:48 am
@ Susan – never been so close to a Bullfrog before! They seemed to have been everywhere and was in a hurry to get home to upload these pictures (so didn’t get any kisses)!! Hey, doesn’t that go the other way? I want the princess?
@ Ruth – very cool with your rain also! They are soo cute when you see such tiny little toads! Have to be careful when picking them up though!
@ Nina – Very cool with the Tree Frogs singing! This was needed rain but we really didn’t get enough of it!
@ Janye – LOL, this was a big toad! I didn’t take any pictures of the smaller ones!
20 June 2007 at 8:55 am
It’s amazing how a closeup shot of something as common as a bullfrog can make them look so wickedly cool! Of course, the more frogs the more food for herons, bitterns, cranes, etc.
20 June 2007 at 9:03 am
Just how close can you get???? I am partial to the little Kermits. Thanks for the toad show.
20 June 2007 at 10:22 am
OOoh I like that first bullfrog- looks like he’s smirking! HA!
never seen a bullfrog so close-
20 June 2007 at 10:25 am
We got a whopper of a storm last night, too. But I didn’t go out to look for fun critters – maybe I should have? Excellent shots of the nightlife in your area.
20 June 2007 at 12:00 pm
Great shots! I heard parts of NY got hit pretty hard. I hope there wasn’t any major damage in your area. Here in NJ we got a pretty good downpour too. I can always tell by how often my sump pumps are going on.
20 June 2007 at 2:33 pm
Wow!! I *love* the close-up photo of the bullfrog! Lookit those eyes! Sooo cool! Yeah, we got the tornado up here at near my home, but fortunately I was at work when it hit!
20 June 2007 at 4:46 pm
I bet all those happy toads and frogs were singing too, weren’t they? It must have been quite a chorus.
20 June 2007 at 9:08 pm
Great shots, as always.
However – the frog you tentatively ID as a Wood Frog is ‘just’ another Green Frog. First, there is not even a hint of a dark mask. I’ve never seen or heard of a Wood Frog that did not have a dark mask. Now, assuming you did have a Wood Frog without a mask, telling one apart from a Green Frog based on morphology and such is a difficult, subtle task (think g.i.s. in birds). Pointers here – essentially identical in every way to the Green Frog above it. What made you initially think Wood Frog?
Dorsolateral ridges taper out by the angle on the back. In Wood Frogs they usually run smoothly all the way down to the rear end.
A faint pattern of green on the side of the snout, as in the Green Frog pictured. Wood Frogs should never show green.
G.i.s. (general impression and shape) – Wood frogs strike me as subtly smoother and a slightly different shape thats impossible describe – just compare lots of pictures from google 🙂
Hope that helped,
Nick
20 June 2007 at 11:59 pm
@ Bird Freak – I have never had such a great look at one as I had the other night. I agree about the more frogs bit!
@ Mary – I try to get as close as I can! Although many of the frogs just hopped away!
@ Lynne – thanks and was fun seeing up close!
@ Marty – that was some storm, wasn’t it? Thanks and you should have gone out!
@ Patrick – We did and lucky my basement doesn’t need a sump pump!
@ Pam – thanks and I love the eyes also! Home is a great place to be!
@ Ruthie – Was great hearing the spring peepers again for sure!
@ Nick – thanks and my first guess was young green frog! I was discussing this picture with another herp friend last night and he came to the same conclusion as you did! I was looking more at the white stripe shape, ear drum position (size) and some of its markings! We had discussed some that didn’t show a big black mask but had more than this one did!! Thanks for your help!
21 June 2007 at 1:10 pm
The white stripe, the tympanum size, and the ridge that runs down just behind the tympanum (straight rather than circling the tympanum) are characters that caught my attention, too. However, a perusal of google images of Rana clamitans (the Green Frog), particularly:
etc,
and I realized all of those characters are variable and present in Green. Also, tympanums vary in size by gender – one sex has a tymp larger than the eye, the other smaller (I forget which is which).
Was that toad really that orange or is that an effect of flashlight?
Cheers,
Nick
21 June 2007 at 10:49 pm
Beautiful Monarch! I’ve enjoyed my visit to your blog.
23 June 2007 at 5:09 am