One Froggy Afternoon

[den]

I wandered into the grocery shop carrying a plastic container and a latex glove. The bloke behind the counter gave me a funny look, but nodded in understanding when I said I was from WIRES and had come to rescue the frog. I've rescued green tree frogs before, mostly from inside people's toilets, and simply let them go  outside. This one was different. It had travelled from Tully in North Queensland, hitching a ride in a bunch of bananas. Letting it go into the bush here was out of the question. The frog wasn't native to this area and wouldn't survive the cold. 

Technically it should go back to where it came from, but it's a frog. I'm all for native amphibians and think there should be more of them. But... frog. It would have to go into permanant care.


THe store owner handed me a styrofoam box large enough for 2 dozen oranges, and opened the lid. All I could see were the scattered remains of some celery tops. "It's escaped" I said.

He glanced in and said "No, there it is." I looked at the celery tops for a moment, then the owner reached into the box and pointed. There, almost entirely covered by the end of his finger, was a green tree frog. A tiny, tiny little thing, all crouched and flattened against a leaf. I put on my latex glove*, had the grocer spritz it with water, and picked up the frog. I placed it in my container. It looked forlorn, a little green spot in the middle of a plastic container. The grocer tore a lettuce leaf in half and dropped it in. A few moments later a webbed hand appeared around the edge of the leaf, and the frog climbed on top. I closed the lid.

One of my fellow rescuers specializes in amphibians, so it was off to Liz's place for little froggy. On the way there he must have felt safe because he let out a noisy call. Unfortunately a constable was leaning in the window giving me a breath test at the time.

"What was that?" he asked. I explained about the frog and he wanted to see it. I opened the lid of the container, the constable leaned closer, and the frog made a perfect 4-point landing on the left lens of the officer's sunglasses. I removed the sunnies and carefully shook the frog back onto the lettuce leaf. The officer was laughing as he waved me off.

Now little froggy is ensconsed in a clean terrarium, with a water dish, some ferns and a life-times supply of tiny crickets and baby meal worms. He seems to be unharmed by his long journey and run-in with the law.

Photos to come.



*Acids in our skin can harm frogs.

Comments

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I have a pale grass frog living in the potplants near my back door. It's the shady side of the house and has a handy insect-attracting light. The more wildlife I attract to my yard the happier I am because I really miss living in the bush.

Happy birthday to you! I missed it the other day.

[jim-lane.livejournal.com]

I've lived in this house almost 40 years, and for a good part of that time there was a scrub wetland area right across the street, with a salt marsh/river a few hundred meters to the east. The county eventually filled in the wetlands and built a "middle school" DIRECTLY across the street, but there's still a fair amount of wetland scrub on the property.

We still get a fair amount of wildlife wandering through the neighborhood, mostly at night, and a few weeks ago I came home from work after 6pm and "surprised" an adult raccoon who was plundering on my tiny back porch. The 'coons can be heard squalling and squabbling with the neighborhood cats from time to time, and we have to keep tight lids on our trash cans. During acorn season we've heard/seen deer happily dining under the oak tree in the front yard late at night, and we have bumper crops of pesky gray squirrels every year.

Used to despise the squirrels, but now I enjoy their brainless antics; also the relatively recent increase in the anole population. Funny little lizards, both macho and gutless at the same time, doing "bad-ass push-ups" and displaying their red throat blades at us humans---then running like thieves to "escape" when they suddenly realize we're NOT impressed by their shows of bravado. If they were the size of wolves we'd be in MAJOR trouble---

House wrens, mocking birds, doves, hawks, owls---we have birds of some sort all the time, year-round.

I'd go crazy living in a large, sterile city...

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

My parents at one point had three fat American Toads living in or around the front yard. One night years ago I came home in the wee hours of the morning to find them sitting on the cool concrete of the front walkway under the light where moths like to bumble about. They were all sitting in a lose circle and didn't seem to aggravated by each other. I wish I had thought to take a picture of them because i haven't seen them since.

I used to catch frogs and toads when I was younger.The best one was in Colorado on vacation. I found an ugly species of american frog that looked exactly like the dark muddy ground around the mountain lake. I left it alone. It was good to know there were frogs at that elevation for some reason:D. I can't even catch Kermit much any more since they stopped running The Muppet Show.