The Green Frog

On a beautiful spring morning, when Mishy was going on a discovery walk, she almost stepped heel to toe on a little green frog!  It wasn't really all her fault, for the frog did his best to make sure he was hidden...but not well enough!


Just before going into the water with her foot, Mishy noticed something pop up above the water's surface.  A closer look, she saw 2 bulging eyeballs look up at her from a pale green head! 


Startled and shaken, the frog looked up at Mishy and simply said, "do you want a game of cricket?" to which made Mishy laugh and reply, "no sir! I almost stepped on you!"  to which the frog replied, "I thought you were going to eat me, so I changed my color to brown right away! I only live for 3 or 4 years, so I would like to enjoy them!"  and with that Mishy decided to sit down on a rock close to her new friend, Mr. Green. 


Promptly she asked him where he had been all winter long, because he had no fur or coat to wear, so she was curious!  "I was fine! my gal friend and I just found a neat little spot together at the bottom of a lake in some mud"  Mishy stood up straight and pointed to Mr. Green and said "That's not true! How could you possibly breathe all through the winter at the bottom of a lake?!"  Mr. Green just shook his head and said, "you don't know much about frogs, do you?  We can breathe from our lungs and our skin, so when its cold, our bodies shut down and we become lazier, so we can breathe fine just through our skin alone until the temperature gets a little warmer.." With that Mr. Green went back down under the water to bury himself into the mud.


"Wait!!" called out Mishy,  "Don't go! I didn't know, that is pretty amazing! I sometimes wish that I could live under the water too..."After a minute or so Mr. Green emerged once more in a full and beautiful lime green color onto the rock beside her.  After a bit of silence, Mr. Green said, "how did you get here anyways?" to which Mishy smiled, "In a VW Beetle of course!!" Laughter was heard from the other little critters in Crooks Hollow...and soon under the days sun, they all came together for a little game of Cricket until the sun came down in Mishy's Small World.

Green six-spotted tiger beetle

Mishy has been noticing a pretty scary looking little green fella in and around the woods lately!  Actually the last time I seen this green, shiny spotted beetle, he seemed quite comfortable on the cement too!  Luckily I didn’t step on him, so I reached out and got closer to him only to notice he had 1-2-3-4-5-6 polka dots on his back wing! 

This is why he’s called the 6-spotted Tiger beetle!  Much like its distant cousin, the carrion this little guy loves the water, and is found most often close by watershed, or floodplains, muddy creek banks and really anywhere where there is lots of plant life!  

In the grown up world of biologists, this little guy is considered a PREDATOR! and very AGGRESSIVE because they eat bugs like crickets, fleas, gnats and even cute little grasshoppers (Mishy’s favorite). 

On a good note, Mishy has come to realize that everything serves a purpose and for this reason, a large tiger beetle will feed on spiders and other pesky bugs and have become known as a great helper for our gardens and our farmer fields!  

Oh one last thing, don’t ever be discouraged if you haven’t spotted one for longer than 10 seconds, they are clocked as the fastest moving insects ever, so it was gone before I could say thank you!

Mourning Cloak Butterfly

While walking through a brushy creek valley on a warm spring day, Mishy saw many butterflies overhead.  There must have been hundreds of them! On closer inspection though, there were only two!  Probably a husband and a wife because they were chasing each other around through the poplars and elm trees that hovered above me coming to rest together on a wild rose bush close by. 

A closer look I noticed their rich burgundy colored wings outlined with creamy white border.  I never saw this type of butterfly in Mishy’s small world, although they are the most widespread of all butterflies!  If you haven’t guessed yet what they are called, they are called the “Mourning Cloak”.  What a fitting name for them! The scientific name is Nymphalis antiopa, but I can’t pronounce that properly so I will like their other name better!

By the end of the day, the number of insect-eating birds increased dramatically, but even under the baking sun, all signs of the mourning cloaks disappeared up and down the creek valley.