Amelia caught this drama on video. Warning: it shows a garter snake eating a green frog. Leave now if you can't watch that. It is fascinating but gruesome.
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| Nature Friday at Adventures of the LLB Gang |
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Showing posts with label green frogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green frogs. Show all posts
Friday, October 07, 2022
Monday, February 27, 2012
Two Hoppers
Two-Striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus)
Green Frog (Rana clamitans melanota)
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Sights Behind the Dump — Animals
This is the last of my posts about the hike we took behind the dump. This post is about the animals that we either saw or found evidence of. These aren't all the animals — I posted the wood frog photos here, the geometer moths here, and of course, the sad porcupine was posted here and here. I have previously posted the caterpillar, pigeon horntail and salamander photos. I'm posting different photos of each here. If you want to see any of these photos full size, just click on the image.
The first photo, above, is of a green frog. It is well camouflaged with the green and black markings. I like photographing these little things.
Above is a leopard slug. Apparently it is not native but is now very common here. I saw my first leopard slug while it was slugging down an amanita mushroom. The one above was eating the fungi on the bark of a tree. The photograph of the leopard slug below illustrates their defensive reaction when you hold one. They curl up small.
The photograph below is, yes, dung. Moose dung. With fungi growing in it. Next time you eat a wild mushroom, remember what it ate before you ate it!
Below is a pigeon horntail. John saw it on a tree. I would've walked right by it. There are 22 species of this bug in the world. But only one in North America! I'm glad he saw it!
One of my favorite bugs is the catepillar below. It is the caterpillar of the American Dagger Moth (click the link to see what this moth looks like). I have here two macros of this caterpillar that I usually save for my Photo A Day blog. If you like macros, visit me there!
We finally figured out where our turkeys may have gone! We found this beautiful turkey feather in the woods behind the dump:
And finally, this is a Northern Two-lined Salamander. In order to find these small creatures, we spend a lot of time on our hands and knees in the mud. It is well worth the effort and the laundry!
Technorati Tags: Northern Two-lined Salamander turkeys American Dagger Moth caterpillar pigeon horntail leopard slug green frogs Del.icio.us Tags: Northern Two-lined Salamander turkeys American Dagger Moth caterpillar pigeon horntail leopard slug green frogs Flickr Tags: Northern Two-lined Salamander turkeys American Dagger Moth caterpillar pigeon horntail leopard slug green frogs
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Spot the Green Frog
This is a bit easier, perhaps, than the Spot the Wood Frog post. If you click on the photo a full size image will open in a new window. You are looking for a green frog (Rana clamitans melanota).Technorati Tags: green frog Rana clamitans melanota Del.icio.us Tags: green frog Rana clamitans melanota Flickr Tags: green frog Rana clamitans melanota
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Saturday, August 22, 2009
Morey's Pond: A Natural History Adventure
In the middle of July we hiked around Morey Pond in Andover (elevation 1329 ft (405 m)) and saw many things that taught Wingnut about natural history. I thought this post would be an opportunity for you to see how we three explore nature together. All links are either to wikipedia.org articles that you can use for more information, to other posts on my blogs, or to photos on Flickr. If you click on a photo, you will open a new page to the Morey's Pond Set I created on Flickr for this hike. From that new page you may choose to view a larger image. Our greatest source of information is John, the most learned naturalist I have ever met. When none of us know a thing, or when we want to learn more, we search the Internet. Often, we find details in my photographs that we need to investigate more, also. Each hike, bike ride or kayaking trip is full of wonder, beauty and learning.Geography
The first three photographs are scenic views of Mount Kearsarge as seen from the pond trail. Kearsarge has a fascinating history and geology. Kearsarge is classified as a monadnock mountain and can therefore be seen from numerous places in this area.
Morey Pond (or Morey's Pond) is listed in extremely brief mentions on the web as a reservoir for Andover, NH. There is a dam at the opposite end of the remote parking area. When we were at the dam, I turned around and photographed this outlet of the pond that runs to the dam (below). Beavers are re-engineering the human dam to better serve their own needs.
PLANTS: The plant life is typical for this area.
Above: Blue fruit of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis).
These blueberries are the reason we went to Morey Pond: to see how the crop was this summer. In Vermont the blueberry farm was smaller than the acreage of wild blueberry bushes here! There are both low and high bush berries on the pond. They had just begun to ripen and we planned to return for picking. But because of construction in the house, two heat waves, grief from the cats, and other things, we never did.
Above: I haven't yet identified this mushroom (I could simply holler across the room and ask John but I haven't!).
Above: Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea)Animal Life
Above: John and I saw this bird scat on a shoulder high branch with dead branches above it. Some carnivorous bird (but not an owl), such as a hawk or eagle, left this here while perched above waiting for prey.
Above and below: evidence of beaver (Castor canadensis). Above you see John standing while waiting for Wingnut to tie his shoe. We are near a tree that was not quite felled by beaver last winter. How do we know that they chewed it in the winter? The cut is high above the ground at just the height that the snow pack would be. A beaver can not climb a tree to cut it down and are not big enough to chew it at this height. The weathering of the cuts on the wood also tell us it was a few months ago that it was chewed. Below you see a closer shot of the tooth marks on the tree.
Above: the human dam as the beavers re-design it. I choose this shot because of the water effects that I got (after two years of trying) in the camera.
Above: halfway between the parking area and the dam is this underground beaver lodge on an outlet (or beaver canal) of the pond. I don't see too many lodges built under the bank of a stream, so this was a treat. I wanted to poke around inside it but was too nervous to try. Who knows who lived there still?
Above: a woodpecker tree. Used for food and nesting but I don't know by what species. Nobody was in residence this season. This was probably made by a pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).
Above: a Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) that I almost stepped on.
Morey's Pond SetFinally, below you will find links to the blogs, photos and links of other people on Delicious, Technorati, Furl (now Diigo) and Flickr. These are excellent resources for any person interested in natural history. Often an amateur naturalist will have a clearer description or a better photo than a professionally created guide book.. Compulsive bloggers, like myself, will take the time to research what we post and to correctly tag every single post and photograph with the scientific and common names of plants and animals. I have organized my Flickr sets into collections of wildflowers, birds, insects, and more to make it easier for people to browse and perhaps identify a creature or plant from outdoors. Click here to see my collections.
Take advantage of our efforts for you and use us as a resource. We've learned a phenomenal amount about genus, species, origins of names and common misidentifications. On your next outing, take a close look around to see what you can find!
Take advantage of our efforts for you and use us as a resource. We've learned a phenomenal amount about genus, species, origins of names and common misidentifications. On your next outing, take a close look around to see what you can find!
Del.icio.us Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire
Flickr Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire
Furl Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire
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Friday, July 24, 2009
Wingnut's First Aquarium
Wingnut had his first aquarium filled with salamanders, frogs and fish from John's ponds. They let the creatures go the next day in order to prepare a more suitable aquarium to keep until Wingnut goes home. These photos are of red-spotted salamanders and the tadpole of a green frog. Wingnut, as any other 13 year old boy, was fascinated and proud of this aquarium and I look forward to them setting up the next one soon.
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