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Frogs in the pond. Didn't realise there were 3 frogs in this bundle until I was processing the photos. Natural light.
Focus stacked using zerene
A tiny little garden visitor. The wood frog may be reddish, tan or dark brown but always has a dark mask under and behind the eyes. Some individuals have a light line down the middle of the back. This species has a dark blotch on the chest near each front leg. The belly is white and may have some dark mottling. Adult wood frogs can grow to up to eight centimetres in length. The call of this species is a series of sharp quacks, almost like those of a duck. No other frog in Ontario has a dark mask like the wood frog’s. Although found on the tundra in the north and occasionally in grasslands in the west, the wood frog is most commonly associated with moist woodlands and vernal woodland pools. When inactive, this frog hides in logs, humus and leaf litter or under logs and rocks. It hibernates under logs or leaf litter on the forest floor.Wood frogs have an astonishing ability to tolerate freezing. They can survive the freezing of 60 to 70 percent of the water in their body and sustained temperatures of -6°C. Consequently, wood frogs are the earliest breeders in most of their range, often beginning to call in early spring when ice is still on the ponds they frequent. This species is known to travel several hundred metres between breeding ponds and non-breeding terrestrial habitat. The female lays up to 2,000 eggs in a mass that is attached to submerged vegetation in small, fishless ponds. Females will change breeding ponds, if necessary, to avoid those that contain predatory fish. Wood frogs are explosive breeders: in a population, the females lay most of the egg masses within a few days. The males are so anxious to breed they will grab on to almost anything, including a human finger, as if trying to mate a female. When a female arrives in the wetland, it is common for many males to try to mate with her simultaneously, forming what naturalists call a “mating ball,” which can contain more than 15 frogs! The egg masses are clustered together so that their combined dark coloration warms them and speeds hatching. The tadpoles transform after 44 to 85 days. Adult wood frogs become sexually mature in two to three years.
These frogs can also change colour rapidly from very dark to very light. This is not so much an adaptive attempt at camouflage as it is a means of controlling body temperature: wood frogs darken when cold in order to absorb more heat. Adults of this species eat various small, mostly terrestrial invertebrates. www.ontarionature.org/
This frog was on the road outside the house. How we missed her driving in I will never know. She was a good jumper and took three attempts but I eventually caught her and carried her away from the danger of vehicles to a safe, grassy mound en route to the pond. A smaller male will join and mount her and she will complete the journey carrying him "piggyback". He will fertilise her eggs as she releases them in the water.
Promise this has not been morphed - this is the expression these frogs wore on the day. There has to be a caption I think but I haven't the wit to see it.
Our weather is flip-flopping. Today is Thursday. On Saturday, the outdoor temperature was mild. I found this frog floating among autumn leaves in a pond. By Monday, the forecast was for snow flurries. Now, it is warming up again.
I don't think I've ever seen a frog outdoors in November . . .
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Also known as Levant Green Frog, Levantine Frog
Scientific Name: Pelophylax bedriagae
Thank you, dear friends, for your support, and for your faves and kind comments, very much appreciated - deaR♥‿♥
A froglet with real attitude. After the harshness of the winter when I found several dead frogs it's great to see so many new animals to take their place. Must be at least 30 in my little pond at the moment - all hiding on lily pads to escape the heat.
Cannot resist posting Frog photos.
Belongs in the order Salienta (Tailless amphibians.) I think this is a female. Common Frogs change colour to suit the immediate environment.
Taken in my garden 29th March 2012