by Pamela Neeley and Sue Ann Kendall
Last week, Sue Ann got all excited when she spotted a Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus) in her little pond at her ranch. She also saw 14 bullfrogs and a Gulf Coast toad, and wrote a blog post about it. When she mentioned the leopard frog at our July Chapter Meeting, lots of members chimed in that they’d been seeing them in large numbers this year.
This morning, Pamela went out into her garden and found a truly magnificent leopard frog specimen. We agreed that this had to be shared.
The stripes and the way they got through the toad’s eyes are so interesting, and the color is almost glowing! Pamela measured its belly print at over three inches. That’s a big one.
Pamela mentioned that she has more than one toad house on her property, which some of the frogs apparently use, too. Here’s the really pretty one.
But the plain ones work just fine, too, as long as you leave the bottom open, so their bellies can rest on the dirt.
Making a toad abode is easy and fun. Here’s a great page Pamela found, from the Houston Arboretum Nature Center on how to make toad abodes of many charming styles, along with a lot more information about them. Don’t forget, they will need a source of water!
What kinds of toads and frogs do you have where you live?
Nature Along the El Camino Real 