All frogs are green, aren’t they? No, some are brown, some are tan, and some are gray. But some frogs are really called “Green Frogs” and that’s what I have in my pond.
For the past few years, each spring we have noticed hundreds of tiny tadpoles in Nancy’s lily pond – basically a 35-gallon tub where she grows water lilies. They would dart here and there for a few weeks, then disappear. We never knew their ancestry – how they got there. I figured tadpole storks.
This year, Nancy decided to scoop out a dozen or so and transplant them to out larger goldfish pond. In early summer we noticed a tiny frog here and there and now there are 7 at last count. They are Green Frogs, Northern Green Frogs, a distant cousin of a bullfrog, but not as large. Large adults may reach 4-inches in body length. Green Frogs have green heads, but their bodies can range in color from to gray to brown to dark green.
The little fellows are certainly survivors. They live in shallow freshwater ponds, road-side ditches, lakes, swamps, streams, and brooks. They are opportunistic and quick to colonize new water bodies such as swimming pools and artificial ponds, like Nancy’s.
Green frogs will attempt to eat anything they can get in their mouths, including insects, spiders, fish, crayfish, shrimp, other frogs, tadpoles, small snakes, slugs, and snails. Green frogs sit and wait and eat whatever comes within reach.
The green frog is one of the most abundant frogs wherever it occurs and has no known problems.
Welcome, Green Frogs.