Monday, August 2, 2010

Treefrog

I found this cute little treefrog this evening when I was out harvesting some milkweed leaves to feed my monarch caterpillars. This is the second time I've seen one of these treefrogs sitting on a milkweed plant in my yard.

I don't know if it's a Cope's Gray Treefrog or an Eastern Gray Treefrog as we have both in Minnesota but from the descriptions I found, I'm leaning towards the Cope's because of this little frog's smooth skin. I did find out that they have the ability to change color from bright green to gray in just seconds!

No markings on the back. This little frog was very shy -- every time I tried turning the leaf to photograph its face, it would turn away from me.

Finally, the little frog grew annoyed with the papparazzi and hopped to a nearby tree branch to escape. I couldn't resist taking one more picture before finally leaving this cutie to go about its froggy business.




10 comments:

Mama Pea said...

Isn't nature's camouflage amazing?

Monika said...

It looks pretty similar to our Pacific treefrog here out west. I've heard some frogs this year, especially in the spring, but unfortunately haven't seen any!

Jayne said...

He's so cute! I rarely see any frogs around here... lots of lizards, but no frogs. :c)

Anonymous said...

Your tree frog sure is cute and so little. Do they like milkweed leaves too?

MOM

Gaelyn said...

Very sweet. I once had a Western Treefrog in my RV. Very cute.

Deb said...

I love tree frogs. I found one once in the bedroom in the middle of the night...kids...:)

stephen said...

Your tree frog certainly is a cutie!

About all we've seen in this neck of the woods this summer are toads...although have heard the frog chorus from the nearby wetlands.

nina at Nature Remains. said...

I LOVE tree frogs!
And until a few weeks ago, had never heard the gray treefrog song--I almost thought it was a bird--what a different song they have! (We have the Cope's gray in our area)

Randy Emmitt said...

Ruthie,

I'd go with the Copes, Gray Treefrogs are usually bigger than this and if you pick one up, the underside of the legs start with a yellowish orange. Never seen a Copes, but we have hundereds of grays in our pond here in NC.

RuthieJ said...

Yes Mama Pea, it sure is. I'm just really delighted that I'm seeing these little tree frogs for the first time ever in my backyard.

Hi Monika,
We've had a really wet summer this year in Minnesota. I'm not sure if that's contributing to the increased sightings of these little frogs in my backyard or not, but we're also seeing more than the usual numbers of toads too. It's pretty cool!

Thanks Jayne. I would love to see some lizards around here, but so far have seen only frogs and toads.

Hi Mom,
I think the tree frogs only like milkweed leaves for resting on. Plus there are lots of little insects flying around the milkweed flowers that the frogs love to eat.

Thanks Gaelyn. Did you have a hard time capturing the tree frog in your RV? The tree frogs here are speedy little guys and almost impossible to catch.

Yikes Deb! They're cute little critters, but not sure I'd like to find one in the bedroom in the middle of the night!

Thanks Stephen. I need to brush up on my frog and toad calls. We were sitting out by the fire in the backyard last night and I'm sure some of the calls I was hearing might have been tree frogs.

Thanks Nina. I finally found a link to the Cope's tree frog call on the internet and that's definitely what we were hearing last nite in the backyard. It sounded like there were LOTS of them out there!

Hi Randy, thanks for the information. The next time I find one, I'll try to capture it and see if I can get a better look at this little frog.