The serviceberries enhancing the Huron/Ashley/Washington/First parking lot are ready to eat. They are seedy, and not particularly tasty, but I always eat some when I go by. The purple color is probably good for me, and who knows what else I may be lacking that serviceberries will remedy. (They don't taste nasty; they are just sort of blah.)
This woman grows lilies the way some people grow tulips. Hooray.
I turned away from the lilies, and spotted something.
Something very small. Something ... hopping.
Not hopping the way a bug would hop.
No.
Hopping the way ... the way a FROG would hop!
HOORAY!!!!!!!
A teeny weeny little amphibian!!!
This baby was about half an inch from nose to rump. All I could see with my bare eyes was gray.
The light was difficult, and the wet shiny sidewalk didn't help. I have lightened and darkened and cropped significantly.
I bet this is a toad, but I don't know. (as always, click on any pic for a bigger version of the image)
As I tried to get its pic, it hopped closer to the grass. The shadows here are grass blade shadows.....
There was another one in the grass. Hooray! I haven't seen any amphibians outside a zoo in years. I was very glad to see them! I surely wish them good luck! They are so vulnerable.......
I spotted them along 7th Street, just outside West Park. I had heard that the new pond in the park (with the board walk -- we've seen it many times) had frogs and toads (though the last time I walked on the board walk, a couple of weeks ago, I saw no evidence of life in that pond). More frogs and toads has to be good!
The 22nd was an EXCELLENT day for spotting neighborhood wildlife! That evening my better half saw a hummingbird over our patio. That was only my second sighting, ever. There wasn't a camera at hand. I chose to stay and watch rather than run for a camera (especially as the family room windows are so dirty that all I could capture is a blob, anyway). Happy sigh.
On the 22nd, a robin began a nest over the patio. We watched it work.......
On the 22nd, I saw my first lightning bug of 2011.
A very good day for watching our little neighbors. I am so glad we haven't totally crowded them out!
Ok, back to walking home.
Wet oak leaves.
The wind blew rain out of the trees, from time to time, and it looked really cool in the sunlight. This is a failed attempt to capture that sunshiny rain. I decided I liked the light and shadows, even if there is no rain to be seen.
My trusty never-cared-for front-yard rose. Love the color!
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2 comments:
A beautiful day for flora and fauna. :) Is your toad perhaps a tree frog of some sort?
I can tell an adult toad from an adult frog, and an adult salamander or newt from a toad or frog, and that's about the sum total of my amphibian knowledge.
Are there brown frogs? I was going by the color........ And by the fact that they were far (for teeny tiny little guys) from the pond, when I speculated they were toads.
Hmmm.
Well, of course, Google knows everything. Here is info on Michigan frogs and toads. It looks like there are lots of brown frogs, some of them quite small when adult (1-2").
I have no idea.
:-)
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