Natural History: Hyla Cinerea (Green Treefrog)

    Easter evening, after our feast, I started to do the dishes. I ran some water and my sink was clogged. I had to stick my hand down the garbage disposal (always use precaution!!) because sometimes silverware or something gets stuck down there. To my surprise, there was a green tree frog in my garbage disposal. He must have came in through my kitchen window and hid there because it was moist. I'm really glad I checked before I just turned my garbage disposal on. I managed to take him the the porch and let him go before my Jack Russel, Ringo, saw him. Ringo is the ultimate frog hunter.

    I knew immediately that it was a green tree frog because of the prominent lateral line, the bright green coloration, and this one had very pretty golden, flaky spots on the back. This particular frog was about 2 inches long, implying that it was pretty well full grown.

HABITAT: Hyla cinerea live in swamps, borders of lakes and streams, and, in fact, can thrive in any moist area in general. It is not uncommon to see them on your porch near the light, or hanging around your house windows to catch insects attracted to your house lights.

CALL: In the field guide, it says that "Some country people believe these amphibians are weather prophets." I'm from a farm in IL and my grandfather always said the same thing. The Green Treefrog's call has a ringing quality, but is best expressed as "queenk-queenk-queenk-queenk" repeated as much as 75 times per minute. After I released the frog, I could hear this call right outside my window, which makes me think that he was a male green tree frog.
        A congress of breeding calls may be heard from March to October in the southeastern part of the country.