View allAll Photos Tagged graytreefrog
Every Summer in Mid Aug I search one of my favorite swampy habitats for the presence of a fresh crop of Little Gray Tree Frogs. Some years they are numerous and some years like this one they are very scarce or completely absent. I found only two so far this year but I will go back and look a few more times in the hope that they are just maturing a little later this year.
While some species must be found by sight, others can be identified by sound, which is particularly helpful with highly camouflaged animals such as this Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis). The call of each species is distinct, and so the team can use “anuran call surveys” to quickly detect and document many species without ever having seen them. As many as seven species of anuran often can be found calling together at any one wetland at any one time.
We almost didn't. While moving out the old gas grill we spotted this little guy going along for the ride. HIs coloring was a really good match with the stainless steel and dirt. Quite docile, he posed for a few shots before I put him in a pot of herbs on the patio.
Glad I found this cute little (1 3/4") fellow before the cats or dog did! He was clinging to the living room wall, so I took him outside. Below is the only other photo I've gotten of one of these guys.
This image was all a matter of luck. Not only did I need to be in the right place at the right time, but I was lucky to spot this guy from my vantage point along the shoulder of Rt.7A in rural upstate Columbia County, New York, USA. I had been looking for Tree Frogs all Summer along this section, unsuccessfully, until today. The last one I had seen here was on August 09, 2008. This Frog was sitting in the fold of a Wild Grape leaf about eight to ten feet above the ground. Luckily, the vine extended and hung down within reach. I had to hold down the vine with my left hand and take the image, one-handed, with my right hand. It took several attempts to get this reasonable shot. I believe this to be a Gray Tree Frog, possibly an immature, in a green phase with some gray evident. This is a less than 1:1 close-up, about 1:1.5 at the sensor. For this image I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 model 52B SP 90mm f2.5 macro lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 18f 1:1 tube with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K A mount on Pentax K20D camera, hand held, manually focused, ISO 200, SR 100mm, f22 on lens, 1/180 sec, with fill-in flash from camera's built-in electronic flash. This is a full resolution large JPEG and is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) without any adjustment, cropping, or resizing.
Photographed at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station, Lake Texoma, Oklahoma, on 3 August 2017.
Photographs and text © Bryan Reynolds
All rights reserved. Contact: nature_photo_man@hotmail.com
A second round of Tiny gray Tree frogs. This shot of one on a leaf gives some idea of how tiny they are.
On 24 Aug 2014 I stopped by a small pond near my home in hopes of catching a few photos of bullfrogs. It was still early morning with a light dew on the grass and as I was standing by the pond quiet and still hoping to spot the bullfrogs I started to notice the grasses plants and foliage around me and the pond. Then I noticed the first Tiny Gray tree Frog sitting on a leaf just a foot or less away from me. Then I noticed another and another. In all I spotted about a dozen of the quiet little fellows around me but I am sure there were more I didn't see. If I had to pick a real "OH Wow " moment from all my photos this past summer this would be it. These little frogs were amazing so tiny and well camouflaged that I was standing with them all around me and only by luck spotted them
Hyla versicolor * Knott Co, Ky
Order: Anura
Family: Hylidae
Genus: Hyla
Size - about 2" long
The Gray Treefrog can be green, gray, or brown in color. It can be a solid color, or it can have blotches on its back. The gray treefrog can change its color in seconds. It tends to become darker when it is cold or dark. Its coloring helps it blend in with tree bark! It has a white underside and lots of warts. It has large, sticky toe pads that help it cling to tree bark and other surfaces. It has bright yellow to orange skin under its thighs.
The gray treefrog is nocturnal. It spends the day resting in trees and shrubs. At night, it crawls among the branches and leaves looking for food. It usually only comes out of the trees and bushes during the breeding season. In the winter, it hibernates under leaves, bark, or rocks on the forest floor.
Breeding season runs from April to August. Males gather in trees and bushes next to breeding ponds and swamps and begin calling. The male aggressively defends its territory from intruders. The female selects a mate based on his call. She lays her eggs on the surface of shallow water in ponds or swamps. She may also lay her eggs in standing water in tire ruts, vernal pools, or even swimming pools! The eggs are attached to vegetation to keep them from floating away. The female lays as many as 2,000 eggs in groups of 10-40 eggs. The tadpoles hatch in 4-5 days and change into froglets in about two months.
Info taken from: www.nhptv.org/wild/graytreefrog.asp
Copyright ©2015 Salina T Gibson *All Rights Reserved
It's mid May on Cape Cod and a gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor) is climbing on the Solomon's Seal plant.
They have a beautiful camo pattern of grays and greens. On the underside of their rear legs is a brilliant yellow streak of color. I am not sure how that helps them blend in, but it is probably gorgeous to a female GTF.
T is for Tree frog.
This tiny Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) is hunkered down for protection in the depression formed by the button on a light-green cloth-covered foam seat cushion.
Fatty just held her mouth open and the mealworm crawled right in. Willingly. Honest.
Note the bluish ball slightly protruding on the top of the inside of her mouth- that'd be her eyeball. They squish their eyes inwards when swallowing prey.
The tree frog soon decided that Don's shirt looked more like a tree than Don's hand did, & decided to go climbing. Not sharp, alas, but shows the bright, bright yellow on the legs -- completely hidden when the frog is sitting still.
I was very excited this past Saturday 10 Aug. 2019 to find about a dozen tiny Gray tree frogs on plants and trees close to a frog pond I often visit for dragonfly and frog photos.
I first noticed these amazing little frogs at this location in 2014. I saw them again in late summer 2015, but then poof gone for 2016, 17 and 18. I feared that they had totaly died out. Then Saturday after looking around the trees and plants near the pond I found none and was on my way back to my car when I spotted the first one on a low leaffy plant on the tree line, then I saw another and another all hiding in plain sight.
They have the ability to slowly change their color to the color of whatever they are sitting on which is a very effective camouflage.