Eleutherodactylus planirostris, greenhouse frog, aptly named for its tendency to Just Kind Of Exist inside of greenhouses and greenhouse adjacent habitats (like hotel landscaping in Florida). These things don't have a tadpole stage either, weirdly enough, females lay their eggs in wet dirt and tiny froglets hatch out
I FIGURED OUT THE SOURCE OF THE MYSTERIOUS CHIRPING NOISE!!
So there is this noise. This mysterious chirping, chittering, high-pitched, hesitant noise that I've been hearing for who-knows-how long, but which I have been specifically trying to identify since March of 2020.
I hear it mostly at night, mostly near windows or out on the lanai. It sounds kinda like a frog, or a cricket, or perhaps some other kind of musical night time insect.
The weird thing about this noise is, it's non-repetitive. Every cricket, frog, toad, and cicada I know says the same thing or things on repeat:
Katydid, katydidn't. Katydid, katydidn't.
EEEEEEEEE (eeeeeeeeeeee) EEEEEEEEE
*Intense rattling noises*
Snort!................................ Snort!
But THIS mysterious critter has the cadence of a shy person asking if, maybe, you wanted to do something?.... But it's okay if you don't.... just thought I'd ask.... heh....
Over the course of three years, I've looked up everything. The sounds of mice, rats, southern flying squirrels (we have those in the US, did you know?), nocturnal songbirds, monkeys (I briefly wondered if we could have escaped troupe, a la-Miami) cockroaches (my ex suggested this one, and I'm so glad she was wrong) and of course various crickets and frogs native to Florida. The internet did not help me. iNaturalist doesn't excel at sounds, and the critter was soft-spoken, unpredictable, and generally hard to record anyway. I had no idea whether the creature was even a vertebrate, let alone what genus it belonged to.
Until last night. I had decided to bring my potted fern inside, and as I sat mindlessly scrolling on the couch, I heard the familiar sound. The answer to my question of three years was hiding in a green ceramic pot.
I kept the mysterious potted critters in my living room for a couple hours, trying to get my sister to hear the noise, before I finally took it outside, pulled out the inner pots, and saw THESE GUYS
They're aptly called Greenhouse Frogs (Eleutherodactylus planirostris) and they're native to Cuba, but have been introduced to Florida and Hawaii.
They make cute noises, and I think I'm gonna make a little wetland planter for them on my apartment patio.
Love looove those old glass houses/greenhouses. It had to be repaired a few times, once after all the glass was destroyed in ww2 and another two times after that. It's entirely made of metal and glass, so it has to have rust repairs.
Love that they put up signs with the history of the house, as well as the history of some of the plants (in the desert house and zoo too). Cool to know that big palm tree you see was from a seed another country gave them as a gift decades ago, or that weird looking cactus next to the door has been there for more than a century. Love to know all that stuff.
Also I thought the frog calls where all just recordings, until I saw a poison dart frog jump across the path, so that's cool too.
New plants popping up! So far cantaloupe, cucumbers, mouse melon, cosmos, tithonia, marigolds, and zinnias!! No watermelon yet, soon >:)
I saw some raised up soil in my bed and thought oh no. I know there’s been rabbits near the bed and it looks like they may have chosen it as a spot for their den. I made a hole and sure enough there’s a hollow space in it. I’m hoping the disturbance will make them pack up and find a better home. If not, I guess I’m a rabbit godmother
Also, there’s a lovely frog hanging around! I saw him yesterday and today. Love him!!!! 🐸
“Frog and lotus” Pop up books. Wanted to share that I’m using a beautiful pallet of colour card stocks from @colorplan_papers with “Ranger Archival inks” and drawing back in with my favourite white washed technique for the frogspawn and tadpole tails 🙈 • • • #frog #lotus #greenhouse #waterlily #ponds #nature #lakes #mytools #wetlands #amphibian #tadpoles #frogspawn #prespective #frogcycles #observations #popup #paperengineering #illustrator #bookbinding #awe #inks #paper #collage #stencils #masters #creative #design #whatimworkingon #generations (at Wimbledon, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck0nAFDodw8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Image description: an illustration of a greenhouse with brown floor and window frames. It has various different plants, a colourful rug on the floor, on the right a ladder with a cat resting on it and a frog sitting upstairs on the left.