Sunday, July 15, 2012

Rain and Frogs

Several light showers passed through the area yesterday, giving Blue Jay Barrens a total of half an inch of rain.  Not a drought buster, but enough to wash the dust from the leaves and cause the plants to perk up.  There wasn’t enough runoff to fill the Water Garden, but fresh water was added to all of the pools.

The rain was enough to coax freshly transformed froglets from the pools.  At this time of year, it’s Gray Treefrogs that are found emerging from pools, tubs and buckets around the homestead.

This guy left the pool and headed right up the brick wall of the house.  It didn’t make much sense to start a terrestrial existence because of a rainfall and then head for the driest place around.

All of the little frog parts are present, but there’s still a bit of tail hanging on.

This Bullfrog is a major hazard to all small frogs.  Bullfrogs will eat anything they can push into their mouths.  Their taking up residence in a small pool means the eventual elimination of all other frog species.  Many Bullfrogs have lost their homes because of the drought and are migrating to more permanent bodies of water.  It’s amazing how many have found their way to my Water Garden.

4 comments:

  1. They've all made their way to your water garden so they can be stars on your blog. ;)

    Happy Sunday from Port Canaveral,
    Lois

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  2. Hi Lois. It makes me feel like an agent. Only the most talented make it to stardom.

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  3. Really cool! I would be interested in hearing about how you set up the water garden.

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  4. Hi Jay. You can use this link http://bluejaybarrens.blogspot.com/2009/06/water-garden.html to read the history of the water garden or click on Water Garden in the labels list in the right sidebar to read all of my water garden posts, including information on some of the water garden herp visitors.

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