How do you spot subjects for your wildlife photographs? My eyes are generally attuned to movement and if a subject remains still, there is a pretty good chance I will not spot it as I scan my surroundings. I was thrilled, therefore, last Friday when I spotted this little Green Tree Frog (Drophytes cinereus) in the vegetation at the edge of a trail at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. You can get a sense of how small and light the frog was if you look closely at the bent stem on which it is napping.
Somehow my eyes managed to pick out its shape as I was looking for dragonflies an other insects. I maneuvered around a bit to get this shot, but fortunately I did not disturb the little frog. As I understand it, this species is mostly nocturnal, so the frog really might have been sleeping. Tree frogs almost always look like they have sleepy eyes, so I can never tell for sure when they are actually sleeping—as far as I can tell, they do not snore.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
