8-25-12

Trip Details

Location: Linn County, IA

Weather: 75 degrees. Low Wind.

Time: 8:45 p.m.

Herpers: Laura Scharosch, Janie Ricklefs, Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Account by: Matt Ricklefs

Photos by: Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: Ironic Visitor

Jim and I had gotten together at his place to work on tweaking out some things on the new PA system he had built. After that he and his wife Laura were coming down to go out to dinner for Mexican at Los Compadraes with my wife Janie and I and we would then come back to Janie and my house to have a few drinks, play some pool and listen to music.

When they arrived back to our place after dinner, Janie and I had already gotten there and obviously had entered the house through the garage. I had gone to let our Pug, Wiley, out so I was at the back door. Janie met them at the door and then before I knew it everyone was outside. I came to the door to discover that they were looking at a nice sized Grey Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) sitting on the sidewalk.

We watched as it started to move around before we all went inside and left it to hunt insects (no doubt) around the lights.

It is very ironic that the first treefrog we saw at this house (in eight years) was found by Jim - a herper. We have seen a few American Toads, a Bullfrog and a Leopard Frog. We have heard the treefrogs calling in the distance, but this is the first we’ve seen. Pretty cool, and obviously a short post was in order.

Happy treefroggin’ folks!!