Well, it finally happened...he has hunted since the beginning of spring, he has sought out almost daily to find one...and today, with his heart beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, my son swiped his trusty frog net through the creek waters and came up victorious with his first American Bullfrog catch!! He has caught several less challenging to catch Green Frogs, but this was the first Bullfrog.

A couple of weeks ago he caught a huge Green Frog that he at first thought was a Bullfrog, but after doing research we knew he once again had himself a Green Frog. Turns out that Green Frogs and American Bullfrogs are similar in some ways, so we have to be keen on our observation skills and armed with research and information to find out the differences between them. So, when he caught his frog today he knew right away that he finally had his prized catch!

So, just what are the differences?

In the above photo that I took you will see the main identifying mark. The American Bullfrog has a ridge which wraps around the tympanum (eardrum), the Green Frog has a ridge which travels straight down it's back. Here are a few other differences:

- A full grown Bullfrog can measure as large as 8";  full grown Green Frogs measure up to 4"

- Bullfrog's eyes are more encaved; Green Frog's eyes are more pronounced, almost like they are little balls sitting on top of their head

- A Green Frog's tympanum is more noticeable than the Bullfrog's

Obviously the Bullfrog he has caught is very small, measuring only about 31/2" which tells us that this one is very young and still has lots of growing to do. And the Green Frog is already 4" which tells us that it is at least 4 years old and fully mature. Both of these frogs that he has caught are females. The Bullfrog is female because the tympanum in the male is much larger than the eye versus the same size as seen on this one. The Green Frog is a female because males have a yellow throat and again a tympanum that is MUCH larger than the eye versus the same size as seen on ours.

If you'd like to hear the calls of both the Green Frog and the Bullfrog, you can visit the following sites:

American Bullfrog

Green Frog

Admist the Bullfrog hoopla, he has also been catching frog tadpoles faster than I can house them! But we are keeping them all for a bit in hopes that we can observe as many as possible turn into frogs.  We've been blessed to do just that with one of them. I posted about it previously, and here is an updated photo of our tadpole turned frog. It has just about fully absorbed it's tail.

It is amazing how quickly it has absorbed it's tail! We are fairly certain that it is a baby Bullfrog. We also have three other large tadpoles and two smaller tadpoles that we are uncertain of what type they are yet. Here's is Alex with our tadpole habitat.

Which brings me to my next photo of our critter stand. With all the various "catches" being brought to me, my back deck floor was being taken over by them! So my very supportive husband took his son and they cleaned up an old shelf we had and made him a special place to temporarily keep and observe his pets. What a good dad to do this on Father's Day!! Thank you Honey!

The large blue container on the floor is for the Eastern Box turtle which he will be setting free in a couple of days.

I've also written a blog post on the Shining Dawn Books website titled Frog Metamorphosis, check it out if you have a chance!