The Fine Art of Frog Catching

I've been doing a fair amount of frog catching with my boy.  And I've learned a thing or two along the way.  A jar is necessary.  Or a box.  Unless you happen to like holding slimy, squirmy things.  

Which J (and his mother) do not like.  So we stick to jars.

You have to move quickly and pounce, sometimes even before you're ready.  Because those frogs are quick little critters.  

And they are masters of camouflage.  Which makes them tricky to find in the first place.  J stalked our fire-pit turned mini-pond for several hours, trying to catch this guy.

He finally succeeded.  Poor homely frog.  He really should choose his ponds more carefully.  I imagine all that soot is not good for his complexion.

 But no frog has been quite as homely as this guy who looked like a pile of poo in the grass.  That's how J found him.  He was on the lookout for landmines and happened to look twice at this one.

He looked a little more frog-like after J gently prodded him out of his hole.  After taking pictures, we returned him to his hideout and tried not to step on him.

Some frogs are so small that they are easily mistaken for large grasshoppers or crickets, which we also see a lot of around here.  So you always have to look closely at hopping things.  That's a small acorn top in the background.

This tiny frog was about the size of my thumb nail.

And I really need to do some more research on these froggies.  There's just way too much that I don't know about them.

Catching frogs is always a temporary thing around here.  J was pretty enthralled with this guy, so he spent a few hours in captivity being studied and admired.  And when it was time to set him free, he decided to just hang out for a bit next to the chicken coop.

Then he ignored my advice and jumped right through that fence into the coop.  We tried and tried to help him out of that place, but he was too good at evasive maneuvers.  He must have found a way out eventually, though, because he wasn't in there when we went to check the next day.

I imagine we'll learn a great deal more about frogs and frog catching in the future, especially if I have this intrepid nature explorer to guide and inspire me.  I'm happy to let him do most of the catching and I'll stick mostly to photography.  My camera isn't usually slimy and it never squirms.  Which I am very grateful for.