Tag: red-legged frog

Brown Beauty in the Green

A red-legged frog is visible through dense greenery along the Horsetail Falls Trail in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon on September 11, 2011. Originals: _MG_4409.cr2 and _MG_4418.cr2

One of the areas I knew I would miss most when leaving Oregon was the Columbia River Gorge, a lush area of forest and waterfalls just half an hour’s drive from our urban Portland neighborhood. I usually went to Ridgefield when I wanted wildlife and the Gorge when I wanted trees and streams, but sometimes the Gorge had its own animals to share. This little beauty hidden below the dense undergrowth along the Horsetail Falls Trail is (I think) a red-legged frog, taken in the fall of 2011. Easily one of my favorite trails anywhere, I didn’t get to go late in our time in Oregon as it closed after devastating fires, but if I ever make it back it will be high on my list of places to visit.

An ant is starting to walk onto the frog in the picture below.

A red-legged frog on the forest floor along the Horsetail Falls Trail in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon on September 11, 2011. Original: _MG_4360.cr2

From Water to Earth

A red-legged frog sits on a rock beside duckweed-filled water

This red-legged frog had been sitting in the duckweed before hopping up onto a small rock. I wanted to convey a sense of the frog emerging from one world to another, so I placed it at the bottom of the frame with the top third green water, the middle third transitioning from water to earth, the bottom third solid ground.