It was a dark and stormy night, the rain fell in torrents…

~Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1830

And indeed it was…last night. We barely beat a fierce thunderstorm as we drove back from dinner with friends in Chapel Hill. The sky was flashing with rapid-fire lightning when we arrived at our gate. I must have done something right recently, as just when I stopped at the gate, my driver’s side windshield wiper arm came apart. That would have been very problematic a few minutes earlier as we drove through a downpour. The rain let up just long enough for us to get inside, and then the sky opened up, and down it came. Something else must have come down somewhere as it wasn’t long before the power flickered, and then went out. A reminder of how really dark it can be out here in the woods…incredibly lively as well. Outside, I could hear another chorus of Cope’s gray tree frogs cranking up, another attempt at spreading the genes around. Most of the sound was coming from the water garden that sits half-empty, awaiting repair. I mentioned it in an earlier post as the source of the abundance of transforming tree frog tadpoles in the yard. And it looked like this would be another night for creating the start of many mini-frogs.

The rain let up so i wandered outside (sans camera, unfortunately) to see what all the fuss was about. I discovered a couple of reasons why it isn’t easy being a tree frog in love. A huge bullfrog was sitting over by one pool, the one without the breeding tree frogs. A guy that big can easily grab and swallow any tree frog that comes his way. That may be one reason the tree frogs are using the other pool, although I think it also has something to do with the thick cover of duckweed and other vegetation in the bullfrog pool. When I walked over to the tree frog pool, I saw another potential hazard to romancing frogs – a copperhead was dangling out over the pool, no doubt waiting for a love-struck frog to venture too close. By the way, that is one reason that pool will remain in a state of disrepair until colder weather arrives. I prefer moving all those stones after certain species are retired for the year.

The rain started up again so I retreated indoors. I soon heard a frog calling from out front, sounding like it was just outside the front door. I grabbed the camera and stepped out underneath the covered entrance way. The rain paused and I heard the frog call again, very close.

Cope’s gray tree frog sitting on walkway (click photos to enlarge)

I knelt down, and spotted the caller perched on the edge of our wooden walkway into the house. He was facing the to-be-repaired pool, the source of all of the other calling. Suddenly, he puffed his body a couple of times, as if taking a deep breath…

Gray tree frog calling

…and let go with a loud trill. His vocal sac extended for a second or so, just long enough for me to fire off a shot. I sat and watched him call a few more times before heading back inside. I figured he would soon hop off toward the other pool and join in the breeding frenzy. It is getting a little late in the summer for a full-on bout of tree frog breeding (the peak of activity is usually from late May – July), but you wouldn’t have known it last night. It has been a wet summer, and the frogs are taking advantage of every last storm, and last night it really seemed like it was raining cats and dogs (or frogs and toads at least). We probably had close to 2 inches of rain in the storm, and power remained out until about 5:30 this morning.

Right before heading to bed, I looked out the front door again. The calling frog had turned and was now facing me. I couldn’t let that obvious invitation go unanswered, so out I went with my camera one more time.

Catching his breath before another trill

I bent down a couple of feet away and he sized me up, but apparently had more important things on his mind…trilllllll!

Nice trill…

About that time, my camera battery died, so I headed back inside to a darkened house. I don’t know whether his efforts eventually paid off or not, but I felt lucky to have shared a few moments of darkness with such good company.

The frog forgets that he was once a tadpole.

~Anonymous

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I must apologize as I have been a blog-slacker I’m afraid. Lots of chores, plus the hot and humid weather has kept me inside more than usual. It turns out, unlike me, there are some things that actually do quite well in this sort of weather. The past few weeks have been wet and warm, perfect conditions for the many frogs here in the woods. And one place in the yard has been particularly popular.

Mini-pond awaiting repair (click photos to enlarge)

One of the two water gardens has a leak (or more than one) in the liner. I cleaned it out this spring but decided to put off attempting a repair or replacement of the liner until cooler weather next Fall. The heavy rains have partially filled this pool, making an ideal breeding ground for several species of amphibians, especially Cope’s gray tree frogs, Hyla chrysoscelis. I have come home late on several rainy nights and their calls have been deafening. And where there are calling frogs, there are eventually eggs, tadpoles, and, finally, tiny frogs, or froglets.

Cope’s gray tree frog emerging from the pool

I started seeing these mini-frogs a couple of weeks ago, and their numbers have steadily increased, with plenty of tadpoles still active in the pool. When I look over the edge of the pool, I usually see 4 or 5 froglets sitting around the edge, most with part of their tadpole tail still present.

The tadpole tail slowly disappears after the frog leaves the water

As a tadpole changes into a frog, the cells in the tadpole tail undergo programmed cell death, called apoptosis (from a Greek word meaning “falling off”, as in leaves from a tree). This process is stimulated by thyroid hormones in the blood. This type of cell death differs from necrosis, where cells swell and burst, often due to injury, and spill their contents on neighboring cells causing an inflammatory response. Cells that undergo apoptosis die in a “neat” fashion, by shrinking and condensing, and are eventually consumed by other cells, thus recycling the organic components of the dead cell.

These mini-frogs could perch nicely on your thumbnail, with plenty of room to spare

It is amazing that all this intricate cellular processing is going on in these tiny creatures as they emerge and begin their terrestrial existence. Studies have shown that newly transformed frogs will stay close to the ground in vegetation, but will often migrate many feet away from their natal pool within a week or so. I am already finding froglets 30 feet or more away the pool. If even a small percentage of these guys survive, it will be a very noisy next summer on rainy nights here in the woods. Looking forward to it…

Here is a gallery of baby pics from the mini-frogs around the pool…