Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) up close
Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor
Last night as I head back in from performing right-before-bed cutworm reconnaissance, there on the porch is what looks like a wad of leaves. Bend down to pick it up and no – it’s a little black and white toad. Bend down farther. It doesn’t move. Touch it gently. Completely still. Did I God forbid step on it when I was going out?
Nope, it’s just cold. The next time my warm hand hovers near it manages a sluggish hop.
By morning it has moved to the drainpipe and I have looked it up. Even though it’s notably bumpy and almost 2 inches long, it isn’t a toad. It’s a very large – as these things go – Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor, and it’s black and white because it’s sitting on the weathered cedar boards of the porch.
I rotated the other picture so you could see him/her more clearly. Here’s the actual orientation. The porch is the same color as the wall on the left.
Gray Treefrog caught last summer on a hollyhock leaf; they don’t call ‘em versicolor for nothin’.
Wow, that creature looks so ancient. (The giant tortoises on Galapagos come to mind. Thanks for introducing him (her?) to me. Lovely post.
Wow, how cool. I had no idea frogs like that one lived in the Hudson Valley! I’d love to see one show up on my own doorstep someday.
Hope you do get to see one – or more! – Emily, and you very well might; they’re common all over the Northeast. But I have to confess that the one on the porch was on the porch in Maine.
I had no idea frogs came in black and white–fascinating!
Guess What? My wife Peggy took a picture of a gray tree frog just a couple of days ago here in Johnston Iowa. (Northern edge of Des Moines, Iowa.