Late May's Woodland Song

This time of year you’ll hear a long high pitched trill at night in the woodlands.  This is the mating song of the gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor).  Only about 2 inches long, this little critter comes in a variety of colors from gray, green or brown, solid or with blotches.  There is always a large, white marking below each eye. The inside of each hind leg is a bright yellow-orange.  Its strategy for survival lays in its ability to quickly change colors to match its surroundings.  It has large sticky toe pads that help it cling to tree bark and other surfaces.  This little frog doesn’t live in a pond but in the trees or shrubs.  There it spends the day resting.  At night it crawls among the branches and leaves looking for moths, tree crickets, ants or other insects.  It can be very acrobatic in its search.  However in late May or early June, it will descend down to woodland pools looking for a mate.  The female, who is much larger than the male, does not sing but will select a mate based on its call.  Each female can lay as many as 2,000 eggs in groups of 10 – 40 on vegetation near the water’s surface.   It takes about 2 months for the tadpoles to fully change into frogs.  During the winter, these frogs hibernate under the leaf litter, bark or rocks.  Like its cousin the wood frog, it will freeze solid.  From the glycerol in its system, it can produce antifreeze which protects its cells from the freezing process.  Even though its heart and breathing stop, come spring it will thaw out and return to the trees.  There it will hunt until the nights warm up to 60°F when it will fill the woodlands with its song once more.  Photo:  beauty-animal.blogspot.com