Thursday, June 14, 2012

Flowers and Froglets

On the edges of Springbrook's wetlands the wild Iris is in full bloom.  The splash of color mixed in with the new greens of summer adds to the scenery on the trails. 

And at the same time the Iris is blooming, the male green frogs begin to call near the base of the plants, staking out territories, trying to attract females into their space.

 The Green Frogs are all along the long floating boardwalk at Springbrook, and easy to see.  I took this picture from the boardwalk on Friday.

This is a male, and is distinguished from the females by the eardrum being bigger than its eye.  The female's ear drum is smaller.
At the same time the males are setting up territories, last year's tadpoles are metamorphosing into frogs.  They have legs and breath air, but still have a long tail.  The tail on this one near the boardwalk goes under the little feather at the far left of the picture.

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