A Froggy visitor to my window

I love enthusiasts - genuine enthusiasts. There are people who one is lucky enough to meet, from time to time, who are genuine enthusiasts about their hobbies, or more probably, their overwhelming obsessions. I have found them in the world of Native Orchids. I grew up amongst such people in the world of bird watching. I have met them from around the world, as Peony growers. Of course, they exist as Butterfly and Moth experts.

I am stating the obvious, I guess, for in every one of life's endeavours, there are people who become totally immersed in their subject. Good for them.

The really good ones that I have met are always generous with their time and knowledge; they share information with others; and specially they encourage the young.

There are other people who regard their knowledge as a "possession", to be jealously guarded.
Once you find such a person - move on. They are a waste of space, and even if you learn something, you will not learn very much. Worse, you might even pick up some of their bad habits.

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Here is a good story, of people being generous with their time and their knowledge.

My Blogging friend, Gaye from the Hunter, has written a frog story recently (after the Hunter Floods, of course, you can imaging her world filled with frogs). Anyway, Gaye put up a story about frogs, and a link to a comprehensive frog website. ("FrogsAustralia Network")

Here is a link to another Frog site "Frogs of Australia". This has loads of amazing stuff. All regions of Australia are broken down with frog lists, and then there are pages for each species, with descriptions and call descriptions, and in most cases, joy, oh joy, recorded frog calls you can easily play just by clicking on the "Hear it now" icon. Unlike some sites, the call plays immediately, not via a separate download.

The "frog freaks" have done a terrific job on this website. Congratulations to them.

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Then, following a comment I made on Gaye's blog, a young frog enthusiast contacted me, and offered to help me identify my one and only frog photo. On 8 March, on a wet and windy night, I was working at the computer when I noticed that a Tree Frog had climbed up onto my window to snaffle some juicy moths which were attracted to the light from the window.

Naturally I grabbed my camera, but I would have to say, photographing a frog through a window is not as easy as it might seem. Anyway, I got one half-way decent photo before the flash scared it away.

My problem was that I had a photo of the underside of a frog. But most frog markings are described from above - that's where most of the colourful bits are.

So, the young Science Student, came into his own, and quickly told me what I had seen - Peron's Tree Frog. Good one. well done that man. Now, using the Frogs of the Southern Highlands and Illawarra web page, I can listen to the sounds, so I can identify this frog by call, when I hear it.

My frog-enthusiast friend has a photo library on the web, under the name of "Liquid_Ghoul". He has great photos of frogs, and lizards on his "Flickr" site.


This is the underneath view of a Peron's Tree Frog, on my study window, as identified by "Liquid_Ghoul". Thanks to him and to Gaye for sharing their knowledge. 'Tis a wonderful thing they do.

And thanks also to all those other "enthusiasts" behind these two different Frog websites.

By the way, is it just me, or do frogs look particularly "naked" when seen through a window, like this? I guess it is just that we seldom see them this close, and from this "intimate" angle. With fingers like this, these guys would make great "Basketball" players