junebug
- #1
The other day, while I was out hiking, I went down a bank to a little pool I stop at often to inspect what looked like a camboba carolinia plant (turned out it's strikingly similar, but that'll be another thread for another time). While inspecting the plants and mosses growing in this little body of water, I noticed a MASSIVE tadpole population right where I happened to be standing, and, to my surprise, a tiny, brightly colored, lime green frog with red spots on its back.
Now I live in the mountains, where it snows and freezes every winter. So this was pretty odd, as frogs tend to not live very long this high up. I mean a few survive every year and spawn, but I've never seen anything like this before. There must have been 300 tadpoles with this little frog looking after them.
I picked the little guy up out of the water, where it was just barely deep enough to keep him entirely wet, and got a pretty good look at him. Only thing I couldn't determine for sure was whether he was fully or semI aquatic. I'm guessing semI because he was just hanging out near the very edge of the little pond.
Now... what on earth was he? Does anyone know of any kind of frog like this living in SoCal? I've never seen one and I've lived here almost my whole life. I've seen similar frogs with similar coloring in FL, but it's so much warmer there. This pool was COLD water and completely stagnant this time of year.
He was the cutest little thing; maybe 1/2 in long and VERY agile. Not afraid of me but would rather not have been in my hands lol. When I let him go after looking at his cuteness for a while, he went into the deeper part of the pool, swimming comfortably right at the surface of the water.
Now I live in the mountains, where it snows and freezes every winter. So this was pretty odd, as frogs tend to not live very long this high up. I mean a few survive every year and spawn, but I've never seen anything like this before. There must have been 300 tadpoles with this little frog looking after them.
I picked the little guy up out of the water, where it was just barely deep enough to keep him entirely wet, and got a pretty good look at him. Only thing I couldn't determine for sure was whether he was fully or semI aquatic. I'm guessing semI because he was just hanging out near the very edge of the little pond.
Now... what on earth was he? Does anyone know of any kind of frog like this living in SoCal? I've never seen one and I've lived here almost my whole life. I've seen similar frogs with similar coloring in FL, but it's so much warmer there. This pool was COLD water and completely stagnant this time of year.
He was the cutest little thing; maybe 1/2 in long and VERY agile. Not afraid of me but would rather not have been in my hands lol. When I let him go after looking at his cuteness for a while, he went into the deeper part of the pool, swimming comfortably right at the surface of the water.