ICAN’T IMAGINE LIFE WITHOUT THEM. The frogs, I mean. Each seems to have his or her own personality–or at least to me they do. Some are showoffs, others loners, and though all those in these images are in the species green frog, or Rana clamitans, look how their colorations and markings vary. A new slideshow of some of my dear friends.
Click on the first thumbnail to start the slides, then toggle from image to image using the arrow keys on your computer, or the arrows beside each caption. By the way, all my other frogboy (and girl) stuff is right here, if you care to browse.
I love your frogs. :)
Me, too, Candis. I swear, I just love them more all the time. :)
We have a close relationship with some tree frogs. They have been hanging out in the deck box all summer or under a chair cover, with night-time forays to the picture window for the entertainment of one of our cats, Princess. She watches for them each evening.
Over the last few months, your photos of the frog boys have been challenging my irrational fear of amphibians.
Where I am, we have a dog-killing cane toad (bufo marinus), and since I can’t tell the difference between a good toad and bad toad and a brown-colored frog, I just shoo them all out of my garden, as fast as possible. But I do have frog-envy. I want frogs around here. One of these days, I need to learn which is which.
I’ve been seeing lots of little toads in the lawn (because of all the rain i guess) but no frogs. They must hang out with you in such abundance because they sense your deep, froggy love.
I put out one ceramic pot of water, but have yet to see frogs. I want to get another bigger water container to make the area more inviting.
I do understand, Yvette; I am like that about snakes, but getting better gradually even with them. Frogs are so valuable and helpful in the garden, and most are good not bad. We have two kinds of venomous snakes here, so that’s why (like you with your cane toad) am skittish. But looking them up is a great idea — it has helped me. I highly recommend a good guidebook (I use Peterson’s reptiles and amphibians guide — I should get one all about frogs, too). I find that I feel safer looking at the photos or illustrations and getting used to the creatures in the comfort of my own home. Really helps me not to scream! :)
What beauties! Do they sing? And do they help keep the mosquito population down?
We love frogs too. Your pictures are amazing. Thanks for sharing them!
There was a little froggy and she sat upon a stone.
She waited in the sunlight but she wasn’t quite alone.
Along came other froggies and they all began to shove
to find out who the winner was, who’d get some froggy love.
There were two little froggies on a ledge above a pond.
They croaked to greet the evening and to show their froggy bond.
Soon, you see their tadpoles swim by giving tails a shake.
It won’t be long til they’ll head off to find their froggy lake!
LOVE your frog pics. I have frogs too…on a 2 acre pond. The Spring Peepers are near and dear to my heart and I love my bulls too…even if they keep me awake at night with all their chatter!
Hello, Diane, the frog poetess. Lots of froggy love here this year. (I have those X-rated photos for a whole separate show, tee hee.) :) See you soon.
Obviously, I’m late to the frog party, but they’re so adorable! Loved the show!
such beautiful photos! here on our farm we are finding both frogs and toads, and wow is it getting noisy at night here! btw, you know the big one is the female, the small the male, and when he is on her back they are making..tadpoles..
Hi, KitchenWitch. Never too late to admire the frogs. :)
Love your pics, we have a small wildlife pond. I waited 6 weeks for frogs. Finally on the 4th of July (when everything else in the area was booked, I’m sure ) 2 arrived. A week later 2 more! They are green frogs like yours. Each evening we play ‘find the frogs because they are so camaflouged.I thought I saw eggs a few weeks ago but then they disappeared…Will more frogs arrive? Or is there a limit to how many frogs will live in one spot?
Thanks for sharing
Hi, Margaret. Depending on the species that deposited the eggs, the resulting tadpoles can be large or tiny. With green frogs, they can take from a weeks to months or more for the tadpoles to metamorphose — you can read about it on the UMich Zoology site I like. And yes, definitely if there are too many frogs in one spot there will be territory wars (between males) and it won’t be deemed a proper breeding site for everybody. If there are too many bullfrogs in my yard in spring, most tend to depart on a rainy night and find bigger water somewhere, leaving maybe a pair only here most years at most.
I love frogs. Thank you so much for the great images. We have one that is an all white tree frog that nightly visits are kitchen window and just sits there hanging out for a few hours. We have lots of tree frogs in FL.
Love the frogs. I wish we were closer to more water to have frogs. We have a toad in the garden this year. He is most happy when I come water him it seems.
what a great slidshow of the frogs at your place. Ours enjoy the pool, sometimes they have it all to themselves.
Monsoon has been very wet this year.I see yound frogs all over.When I enter my garden hundreds of them would welcome me.It’s sad that only a few would survive.Too much construction, nowhere to hide for them.
Love your frogs…I have frogs in a pond across the street from house. Only have toads around the house. Must tell you a funny story..Many years ago, I had a new friend , who moved here from a really big city. Here( is a small farming town in Wis.) She was visiting one evening, and asked ” what kind of birds are making that noise?” Of course it was a pond full of frogs… We still will have a laugh over that…
But I do feel sorry for the city dweller, who does not get the joy of hearing these wonderful creatures…
What advice do you have for protecting gardens -dahalias, tomatoes, etc. –
during the upcoming hurricane in New England?
Hi Sara — that’s some story. Another creature who makes bird-like sounds here: woodchucks (aka groundhog or “whistle pig”). Very funny.
Hello also to Joanna. That’s some poem. Very sweet. Thank you.
Hope to see you both soon again.
Lovely, and very relaxing.
We have a new pond, dug about 5 or 6 weeks ago in a swampy spot in a field near the house. Immediately we had many many green frogs in it, easily a hundred or more, all sizes. Sitting in the water along the edge, floating in the water with their legs spread out behind them, sitting on the rocks on the bank, hanging out in the field around the pond. I think they must have been living in the wet areas of the field. I’ve been going to visit them every day. Today after the heavy rains we had, there were only 3 or 4 there. Is it possible that they hide in the mud or somewhere during storms? Or did we have a mass exodus? I’m anxious to see what’s happening tomorrow.
Hi, Deborah. They love to take advantage of wet weather here and roam around the garden hunting. So I am always extra-careful during/after rain because they may be quite a distance from the pond. Late in the season like this (or very early in spring) the bullfrogs here will also tend to use a rainstorm to relocate to a larger body of water (or come back from it) since unlike the green frogs they are true aquatics and can’t hop around on land too far from the water for long periods except during such weather. Yesterday it rained here and my green frogs dispersed; today it’s calm, and they are back at poolside. But who knows what yours have in mind? Adventures, maybe. :)
Just adore your green frogs . A water fixture is impossible with our Labs, but we have grand big brown toads who watch us like we (dogs and all) were a TV program!. One sits every evening on the patio side by side with a little cast iron frog who is rusty brown like the live one!
love your frogs. We used to have a pond in our back yard where we used to live and we loved hearing the frogs sing. We had a bull named Cronk who was with us every year.
For a funny story, after we first built the pond I kept hearing this funny noise. Since there was an electrical transformer on a pole in the back of the pond Iwas sure it was some problem with it. I called the Electric company and they came out to examine it. The repairman finally located the sound. Yes, it was the mating call of the amourous frogs! We had a good laugh.
I miss my frogs as we now live on the shores of Lake Erie but the other week, I had a very persistent frog (or toad) who swam every morning in our pool. I fished him out and told him that it was a people pool, not a frog pond.
HI TO ALL…..I HAVE A SMALL POND ON MY PROPERTY AND AT ONE TIME MY FATHER BROUGHT BACK TWO BULLFROGS FROM ONE OF HIS MANY FISHING TRIPS TO BLACK LAKE . WHEN I HEAR THEM I ALWAYS THINK OF HIM BECAUSE HE TOO LIKED FROGS!!!
Hi, Betsy. I love how they just stare and stare and stare. Here too! I love the notion of us being their TV program.
Hi, Sandi. Some of the noises here range from belches to squeals to drum-beating to who knows what. They are a noisy and hilarious bunch.
the frogs are wonderful, what a fitting totem, all about transformation.
We love our frogs too and you have helped us understand their ways. I have a question about skinks. We have discovered them as well and initially I completely flipped out. I’d never seen a little wormy thing with legs before. Did some research and actually named them and found out there are also amphibians??
Your frogs are beautiful. I actually didn’t know they would hang around pines. Who knew! Great shots. This spring our tree frogs were so incredibly loud my husband and I had to sleep with our doors shut and ear plugs in fact it got so bad we actually had to round up the little guys that had moved into my pool garden and relocate them to the pond and forest past our pool. It was hilarious every night around nine we’d take a giant cookie jar out to the pool and round up about ten or twenty bull frogs and tree frogs and gently explain that the salt water pool was bad and they’d be much happier at the pond. My son would zip them over to the pool on the atv and we’d have one or two quiet nights. That was May and June!
oops I meant he’d zip them over to the pond!
yesterday I found a tiny frog in my greenhouse high on a table…we sell plants and I was going through tomato plants and there he was in one of the trays~I have no idea how he got up there!~or…how he knew he would have water up there and plants to eat I guess! He is now in natural environs where I hope he is happy and can access enough water. I just loved him when I saw him.
Only toads here. Sitting on the deck yesterday, with the dog on my lap, a toad jumped on my leg, traded nose touches with the dog, walked down my leg and sat on my big toe to enjoy the elevated view. Then he spotted a shady wet spot from where I had watered the deck tomato pot, and off he went. It was SO cool!!!