wildlife chronicles

[turk]

Last summer at the Indiana Dunes I happened upon a small delicately colored frog which had to be a tree frog judging from the way it climbed on me. I was curious later and tried to look it up on the internet based on memory. For a while I thought it was a Pinewoods Tree Frog but they are not up in that part of the Midwest if at all according to sources. This frog was slightly gold with brown markings and had an almost translucent quality. It was extremely sticky -- though I refrained from handling it as much as I could. I let it go and it disappeared pretty quick.
Here's a video of the species I've decided it was. This one seems a bit bigger and green but apparently they do change color often.
http://www.midwestfrogs.com/media/treefrog.wmv

[turk]

Here's one I "found" in a vault toilet in Oregon. I'm not sure what kind of frog it is.


It was clinging to the door knob like this:

I don't think it was a tree frog though. I just found out there are not a whole lot of species of tree frogs in the west as opposed to east. One species is all I found - pacific tree frog. Too bad. I'm a tree frog lover myself... Actually chances are this is just that : Hyla regilla - Pacific Tree Frog

[Bookwus]

Hiya Turk,

Yep, that's a Pacific Tree Frog. The stripe through the eye and the bands on the legs are giveaways. That plus his size.

I am told (though I never seen this myself) that these guys can change color (much like a chameleon) to suit their surroundings. I do know that I have taken one off a wall in our school and that little guy was almost a lime green, but still had the eyestripe and the leg bands. We waited around on him to do some color changing, but apparently he wasn't in the mood.

[turk]

Thank you for confirming Bookwus.
I've loved frogs since I was very young. I guess they kind of resemble little people. Though at one point in my adolescence I was guilty of killing a few needlessly I've continued to have an affinity. I've found a lot of connections to myself and am starting to develop a deeper appreciation as I get older.
Amen.

[hambone]

Yep, you gots froggies on th' brain.

[turk]

Thanks man

[glasseye]

Last summer at the Indiana Dunes I happened upon...

Dunes? You got dunes in Indiana?

[turk]

They're pretty neat. It's federally protected land now since the 70's I guestimate. The heart of one of America's big industrial areas is located here as well -- the southern tip of lake Michigan. Dunes stretch up the east coast of Lake Michigan for hundreds of miles in the state of Michigan too.

[LiveonJG]

Hey what happened to Claudia? Lee Van Cleef is cool and all, but, come on?

-John

[turk]

She looks like me in this one! Not quite.

[turk]

This just in:
A female Coopers Hawk was captured and relocated from Belmont and Western in Chicago to a preserve in Barrington, Il. Why? I dunno. My girlfriend called me on the cell phone the other day (a few weeks back) from outside our apartment to alert me to the fact there was a large bird outside. I went out and we watched a Coopers Hawk for a few minutes as it watched us from the ground and a nearby tree before flying away. I see these birds often, as well as kestrels in the neighborhood feeding on the plentiful prey around here. This (the city) is good habitat for them apparently.

[justgimmecoffee]

On Thanksgiving I was driving along the freeway when a hawk dived something right next to the road by an offramp.

the bird just rocketed down out of the sky and at the last second just.... landed. looked like it scored some kind of meal.

it was amazing to watch.

-Barry

[RussellK]

We have Peregrine Falcons downtown that feed on the Pigeons. At a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium I was watching the pigeons flying by the lights when out of nowhere a falcon hits and all it was after that were feathers fluttering down.

[hambone]

A city is no place for birds and mammals.

[turk]

We have Peregrine Falcons downtown that feed on the Pigeons. At a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium I was watching the pigeons flying by the lights when out of nowhere a falcon hits and all it was after that were feathers fluttering down.

Wow! There are some of those here in Chicago as well. I've only seen one once. This one was at a big vacant lot that was being developed so the ground was all turned up. I assume the falcon was scoping the rodents and other small mammals that were displaced by the construction. The falcon had a lot of white feathers but it had the characteristic "sideburns" and it was a large bird.