Increasingly, over the past few years, we’ve been hearing some sort of frog or toad calling in mid-summer, in our neighborhood.
This year, we seem to have those amphibians in our back yard, judging from the noise they’re making.
That’s a bit odd, in that a) these weren’t around, or around here much, five years ago, and b) amphibians in general are in decline, world-wide. But mostly, c) there are no ponds or similar frog breeding grounds nearby.
In any case, courtesy of recordings of the calls of all Virginia frogs and toads, via the Frog Lady, I’m pretty sure that we’re hearing the gray tree frog. (Or possibly the similar-looking Cope’s gray tree frog, which has a similar call. My money is on gray tree frog.)
Source: University of Maine.
This is a roughly 2″ long frog, whose color ranges through shades of gray, green, and brown. It changes color to match its surroundings and is reportedly quite hard to spot, in the wild. It is found throughout the eastern U.S. and is listed as having a stable population.
Their diet consists mainly of insects. Which is fine by me.
But why is their population increasing locally? Their young need a pond or possibly a slow-moving creek for between four and eight weeks. There are no naturally occurring ponds anywhere near here. The nearest “pond” (parking lot runoff control pond) is 1.5 miles away, and the nearest year-round creeks are at least a mile from my house.
So that’s a puzzler. Here’s a species that needs still, ideally fish-free water for several weeks, in order to reproduce. I’m pretty sure we have nothing like that nearby. But the population has clearly increased in the past few years.
What I thought was a garden fountain must be a frog pond?
Upon reflection, I can think of only one potential explanation. A few years back, a neighbor installed a good-sized in-ground fountain, as part of his landscaping. It sits under some fig bushes and other tall plants, and so gets dappled sunlight most of the year.
That’s really the only permanent, fish-free “pond” in this area, that I know of. Certainly the only new one, in the past few years.
Is it even remotely possible that a tiny, permanent garden feature like that is sufficient to allow a frogs to breed?
The answer is yes. Something the size of a kiddy pool is adequate to allow frogs to breed and reproduce (per this source). The pond should ideally be mostly in the shade, surrounded by plants (per this source).
I’m still not convinced that this one modest pond could have produced enough tree frogs to populate the neighborhood. But at this point, my neighbor’s garden feature is the only explanation I can find for the increase in my local tree frog population.
