September 10th, 2006
it’s not easy being green
To follow-up on yesterday’s post about Gray Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor), for the past couple of weeks, on sunny afternoons, I’ve been finding quite a few juvenile frogs basking on Common Milkweed leaves. Air temperatures have recently dropped off at night and days are moderate. Such conditions seem to bring out the young frogs in numbers. A couple of summers ago, I noticed that they seem to choose Milkweed leaves as a favourite basking perch, so it’s there that I look for them.
I have smallish hands, so as you might guess, this frog was quite tiny (click on image for a larger view). While I was admiring its beautiful colours, a couple of lines of Kermit’s song, It’s Not Easy Being Green, came to mind — It’s not easy being green / It seems you blend in with so many other ord’nary things. It occurs to me that Kermit should probably be glad he’s green for that very reason. (-:
Tags: Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor
September 10th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I can’t believe how cute and tiny that little green treefrog is. It’s too bad we don’t seem to have any milkweed here (or we do and don’t know about it) because it seems to support so much life. Wonderful photograph. He looks quite content to be sitting on your fingers.
September 10th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
On a different topic, have you seen migrating butterflies yet? A couple days ago, I saw one drifting by at about treetop level, which seemed to be heading in a purposeful, straight-line direction, in spite of its floating motion.
September 10th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Robin – they are very tiiny and cute. I sometimes find even smaller ones a little earlier in the summer. They seem so very fragile. On warm, sunny afternoons, the little frogs don’t seem to mind resting on my hands for a short while, but eventually hop off to a nearby plant.
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Vasha – Yes, we’ve begun to see Monarchs that appear to have begun migrating. Not many yet, but I’ll be watching out for that today as we’ll be driving along a stretch of highway that runs east-west. That’s when I tend to notice the migration most as we’ll see a few cutting across headed south.
September 10th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
What a beautiful little guy! In the first photo he looks like he’s wearing a “Mona Lisa smile”- like he knows a secret!
September 13th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
I’m just going to go with cute comments. There is nothing cuter than a tree frog.