Froggy Hotel

  Sometimes things are just stereotypical even in nature.  Mother Nature can pull some classic moments all her own.  Ever since I was a tyke, most storybooks would depict a frog living in a hollow log or stump.  I am here not to debunk that myth but rather give full support as there is such a frog (or in my pond, a bunch of frogs and toads) living in the hollow stump in the Frog Pond.  

  Last winter, Michael pulled a stump out of the creekbed and toted it home for me.  He knows that I adore any oddity that I can place in the garden.  What a good son he is!  Now that same stump has been moved to the Frog Pond.  Since it was covered with moss from the creek, I figured that it would be quite at home in the shallows of the little pond. It seems that this stump has become the home of choice for several different frogs none of which are of the same species.  A Narrowmouthed Toad, a Green Tree Frog, a Leopard Frog and now one that is yet to be identified, all occupy chambers in the stump.  This stump has numerous "limbs" that reach outward from the center and each is hollow.  These all provide individual rooms for the frogs and toads.  It is like a "Froggy Hotel"!

  This afternoon, I heard a different croak in the pond. It did not take me long to drop to my knees in hopes of spying the frog with a different voice.  I found him (or at least I found a frog) hiding in the hollow stump, of course!  It was dark inside of the stump so identifying the critter was out of the question for the moment but his choice of residence was pretty classical.  It seems that all frogs like hollow logs and stumps!