My previous post is a look at our backyard friend, the Rio Grande Leopard frog. He is one of two in residence at our pond.
Today, as I watched him sunning himself on a rock near the waterfall, a honeybee (with a death wish) caught my eye. Now, frogs eat flying insects, of which a bee is one. The following sequence demonstrates the rewards of patience:
Rio Grande Leopard frog, keeping a sharp eye on the honey bee, who is already tempting fate.
The bee lands on the frogs back, then walks up to between the frog’s eyes to lap up some of the water on the frog’s head. Bad idea.The bee tires of the frog and finds a small puddle of pond water to fulfill his needs. Another bad idea.
In the blink of an eye, the frog does a jump-move to line up his prey in his gunsights.
A burp of satisfaction…even with my camera in the “spray and pray” mode (shooting at 8 frames per second), the frog’s tongue and its sticky glue-like coating had the bee ingested, so fast my camera could not catch the action.
Oh, well, I think I’ll go get some lunch. Thanks for watching.
Since Stephen Gingold is confined to a sunless Friday due to an allergy to anti-tick meds, I thought I’d post a couple of pics in absentia on his behalf. These guys are Rio Grande Leopard Frogs, and have recently taken up residence in our backyard pond. Most folks don’t realize that even in the desert, where there is water, there are usually frogs.
