Top Photo: Can you see the frog in the center of the picture?

In our area, pickerel frogs breed from February to April. The rest of their year is usually spent away from the temporary pools of water they typically breed in. They may be far from water during the non-breeding season.

The frog pictured here was tucked in a crevice of a stone wall behind the waterfall in Earth Moves.

Pickerel frogs are mostly brown in color with more or less rectangular or oval shaped black spots on their backs. They may be mistaken for southern leopard frogs, though leopard frogs are usually much greener. If your stuck distinguishing between the two, note the orange-yellow color where the hind legs meet the underside of the body of the pickerel frog. The entire underside of the thigh is this color. Another clue, leopard frogs have a white spot on their tympanum (eardrum).

Rana (frog) Palustris (swamp), or pickerel frog, is one of thirteen species of frogs and toads I’ve documented on the museum’s campus.

Have fun.