Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Live and learn--a cricket frog!




We've been really busy lately, so I get in my nature observations where I can.  We attended a meeting of Joseph's submarine vets, and I still had room on the page, so fitted in this tiny frog I found on the limestone rocks by the creek.  MUCH larger than life, in my drawing.

At first I thought he was a spring peeper (Hyla crucifer) but since he was SO warty I thought perhaps a tree toad.  Looked too shiny, though...and had those striped legs.  Later, I compared my sketch and photos to those I found on the 'net, and discovered he's a Blanchard's cricket frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi), common in Missouri but almost endangered in some other places...


They may be only 5/8" long, but can be bigger...up to 1 1/2"--and can even have orange or red markings.  This one had bright spring green. 

The Internet's amazing, isn't it?  I looked in a couple of my field guides and wouldn't have identified him from the pictures there--cricket can be so varied in color, and I was looking for that screaming green.

He's ink and watercolor pencil, with just a touch of gouache on those shiny little warts.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely froggy Kate! Learning through sketching and the internet - great!

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you, your questions, comments, observations! Please feel free to comment, feedback is important to us.