by Catherine Johnson
Here are a few things I’ve seen around my house recently.
Nature Happenings
Tag: frogs
A Hidden Visitor
by Donna Lewis
Camouflaged and silent…
I was out this beautiful morning cleaning and filling my hummingbird feeders. I finished with that, then filled up the ant moat which the chickadees drink from.
I was so shocked to see a very green tree frog not making a move in the crutch of the shepherd’s hook.
I had done all that work and sprayed with a water hose, and it never moved. Boy was I both shocked and happy at the same time.
While I was happy, I bet it was scared that I was a predator fixing to get him or her. It was a “Barking Treefrog”. So wonderful to see.
Today was your lucky day, little one. A planet Earth person who loves nature was the one who found you. You made me smile. I guess we were both lucky today…
Frog and Toad Research on My Property
by Donna Lewis
Hello,
We just received the results from an acoustic monitoring event that was performed by Dr. Paul Crump, a biologist from the Texas Park and Wildlife Department. He is a Herpetologist in the Nongame and Rare Species Program.
First of all he was checking out Milam County to look for the Houston toad. This toad was recorded in this county years ago, but not found here in the past few years.
It was really interesting to see how this survey was done. Dr. Crump placed a recording box to a tree near our small pond at the back of our property. It is called a song meter and recorded two hours of audio every night from January 28, 2021 until June 12, 2021.
Then Dr. Trump retrieved the box and took it with him where he had the tedious job of listening to hundreds of hours of frogs and toads singing, so he could identify each species. Wow what a task! You really have to know your stuff to do it.
Sadly there were no songs of the Houston toad recorded, but he did identify seven different frogs and toads! I did not know we had that many on our property. Very neat.
I hope this report does not make its way to the snakes that live near me. They will be arriving here pretty fast for lunch. I have learned more about these creatures by looking up each one of them. Thanks to Dr. Paul Crump.
The Great Escape: A Bioblitz Tale
by Eric Neubauer
Way back when TMN training was beginning, I heard Alan Rudd’s stories about little grasshoppers that jumped into the water to eat algae or escape with interest. Over the next year I encountered pygmy grasshoppers in just three places, locations including Taylor Park on Granger Lake on Day 1 of the Bioblitz.
On Day 3 I encountered some again, this time at Alan Rudd’s place, where I had seen some in the fall. It seems they remain active through winter in very sheltered areas. Unbelievably I ended up with a mating pair sitting on my finger, something that isn’t likely to ever happen to me again.
How did this happen? I saw one sitting near the water and tried to scoop in up in a container I had along for photographing Pardosa spiders. Of course, being a grasshopper it immediately jumped out as I expected, but landed upside down in wet mud, and I could see her tiny feet waving around in the air. So I offered her my finger, which she grabbed onto and was happy enough to sit there while I took as many photos as I wanted.
As I started taking photos, I realized there was more than just mud stuck to her. Eventually I realized it was an entire male grasshopper. When I finished with the camera, I put the grasshoppers back where they came from.
A little later I thought I saw a grasshopper jump into the water and burrow in the mud. I wasn’t sure, because little frogs were doing exactly the same thing to avoid me. I took a photo, and sure enough it was a grasshopper, proving that Alan hadn’t been exaggerating.
Whoops! After carefully looking at the supposed Paratettix hiding in the mud, I believe it is actually a frog, Acris blanchardi, so my underwater photo of Paratettix hasn’t happened yet. You’d think it hard not to be able to tell a grasshopper from a frog, but there you go. I’ve deleted the observation and resubmitted under Acris.
Linda Jo commented that this isn’t the first time such a mis-identification has occurred!
Nature around the Johnson House
by Catherine Johnson and Sue Ann Kendall
Today, Cathy is sharing some of the wildlife she’s found around her home outside of Rockdale. That moth is amazing, isn’t it? We hope you enjoy this photo essay!
From top left, clockwise: Gulf Coast Toad and toad house, black witch moth (I think), wolf spider, milk snails, leopard frog.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 