The most important skill for young froglets is hiding in plain sight. Which means that it’s really hard to spot them now. They are still so tiny that I can’t see them unless they move. So, one way I’ve found is to set my phone camera to 3 times magnification and pass it slowly over the gaps between pebbles. Then what I thought was just a jumble of leaves and gravel becomes differentiated as an eye or a leg or a shiny body.
Before I can see them, they can definitely see or sense me. So the next issue is that they keep very still if I’m around. I wait for minutes at a time in a game of ‘who blinks first’. Usually I give up and stop the video and then they do something interesting, like an impressive blink. But occasionally patience pays off and they make a move.
I moved the trail camera today because the last position didn’t produce much of interest. As I picked up the wooden board it’s attached to, I realised where some of the froglets had been hiding. The gaps underneath must have felt very dark and safe. Anyway, as I picked it up, about ten froglets started jumping about, finding new places to stay. I settled the board in a new place and fetched my phone to capture some of the activity.
FROG BLOG 