Top Photo: Cope’s gray treefrog on cedar limb. March thru April is the peak breeding season for American toads here at the museum and they’ve been out calling and mating in numbers. American toads are one of two true toads found here on the Piedmont, the other is Fowler’s toad. I’ve only heard Fowler’s toad on one or two occasions on our campus. American toad is the one you’re most likely to see and hear. The warm weather of thisRead more
Posts tagged: #cope’s gray treefrog
Summertime!
Despite what the calendar says, it’s summer. And, as what happens every summer, birds that had been caring for and feeding their young in the nest are now out and about with their families teaching the youngsters how to survive on their own. Warm weather frogs, like treefrogs, stimulated by the heat and thunderstorms, are breeding on cue. And plants, that can, like-wise, take the heat, have set blooms. Insects that have been less obvious to us the rest of the yearRead more
Answer to Who am I?
The question was… Look below ———————————————– —————————————— ————————————- ——————————– ————————– ——————— —————– ———–Read more
Cope-ing with the situation.
Another good spot by Hannah of Outdoor Summer Camp fame on yet another Wednesday walk-about with the campers (8/3/11). This time it was a very light Cope’s Gray Treefrog in the smartweed in Explore the Wild. As you can see (above and below), these gray treefrogs are highly variable. They are able to change according to the substrate, or object that they happen to be perched upon. I’ve never seen this color change occur as rapidly as an Anole’s colorRead more
Treefrogs Arrive!!
It’s that time of year again when we start to see newly morphed treefrogs on the vegetation surrounding the Wetlands. Yesterday (6/22/11), I was out walking the “Wild” with a group of Summer Campers. The sharp-eyed campers spotted the treefrogs pictured here on the branches of the now blooming Buttonbush which grows along the south side of the Wetlands. Gray treefrogs can be green, gray, or even brown in color, depending upon what it is that they’re resting on at theRead more
Hylidae are Active!
Northern Cricket Frogs, Green Treefrogs, and Cope’s Gray Treefrogs are all active and calling. The daily showers that we’ve been experiencing lately have moved this family of small frogs to think of romance, or at least to mate. So, when you’re hiking around the trails listen for the “click-click-click” of the cricket frog, the “quonck-quonck-quonck” of the green treefrog, and the bird-like “berrrrrrilll, berrrrrilll” of the gray treefrog. Have fun!Read more
Treefrogs Unite, Snappers Attempt to
On July 16th as Ranger Kristin and I walked through Explore the Wild, a tiny, grayish frog hopped out onto the pavement. The tiny frog was a Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis). The little frog (about 15 mm) had only recently morphed from a tadpole after having been deposited in the Wetlands as an egg, along with hundreds (maybe thousands) of others like it, a few months earlier. This was the first young treefrog of the season. A second “fresh”Read more
May Herpetological Happenings
Above: After successfully laying eggs, a yellow-bellied slider heads back into the pond. At this time of year many turtles are moving up to dry land to lay eggs. They turn up in the most peculiar of places in their quest for the perfect spot in which to dig a hole and lay their eggs (According to Ornithopter Operator, John Hammons, a Yellow-bellied Slider was found on the Ornithopter one May morning). Museum staff often encounter Yellow-bellied Turtles walking downRead more