Gray Treefrogs, being "tree" frogs, spend most of their time clinging with their large toe pads to the bark of trees. These trees usually surround a body of water . In the mating season, the frogs come down, mate, and then return to their arboreal world.
Spring Peeper(Pseudacris crucifer - formerly Hyla crucifer)
Gray Tree Froglet - found in late summer. Can be told from peepers by "boxy" shaped head, green coloration and brown patterning on side of face.
As their scientific name, versicolor, suggests, they can change color with varying temperature, becoming darker when the air is cooler. The picture above was taken on a chilly night, so you are looking at the darker phase.
The Spring Peeper is our smallest frog, and with the Wood Frogs, are one of the first to begin chorusing. Their "peeping" can be heard from great distances and can be near-deafening if you are standing in the middle of a chorusing congregation!
Note the cross, or "crucifer" on the peeper's back.
These frogs emerge from their wintering burrows around April. They breed in May and their eggs are laid in floating mats in vernal pools or permanent bodies of water. Of all of the tadpoles, I find theirs the easiest to recognize, as their tails are brick red. The Gray Tree-froglets, appear in the late summer and look nothing like the adults. They could be mistaken for Spring Peepers at this time of year, but they are green and have boxier heads than the ochre, pointy headed peepers.
Spring Peepers were recently put into the family of pseudacris, or Chorus Frogs, because of their relatively small toe pads and their preference to lower laying vegetation along bodies of water.
While they are on the move early in the season, they remain active and peeping later than any of the other frogs I've encountered. I've heard peepers peeping in January and February! They overwinter underground, and migrate to nearby pools of water with the late winter evening rains.
Along with Gray Treefrogs and Wood Frogs, Spring Peepers can freeze solid in the winter. Their ability to withstand the cold gives them a jump (sorry) on the breeding season. They prefer ponds and lakes surrounded by low-laying vegetation. They lay their eggs singly, attatching them to plants under the water.
Newly metamorphosed peeper froglet found along the edge of my little pond July 14th, 2003.
