Entry from my naturalist notebook, October 2015:
"Starting in late summer and continuing into October, the Historic Johnson Farm would occasionally have one or two Grey Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor) huddled in the metal mailbox. These squat rock imposters would climb onto my hand and suction their toe pads to my fingers, immovable, not even looking alarmed."
They are reluctant to climb onto a leaf or a branch from nearby trees and shrubs, but that's often where I would coax them to go. However, they always returned eventually! After a year, I stopped relocating them (partly to save their sensitive skin from human hand germs, and partly because of sheer glee). This year has been a good one for tree frogs in the mailbox. Several of them have taken the box as an apartment, coming and going through dents in the door. I worry what the mail person thinks, but more likely than not, nobody notices the frogs. After all, camouflage is their specialty! -Amanda
I found one in our mailbox last week and couldn’t figure out how or why it would have chosen our mailbox over the many trees in our yard. After reading this post, I guess our frpggy friend is not so different from his fellows.
That’s great Laurie! Tree frogs are my favorite, especially when they’re in green camouflage. I mostly see gray ones, when I do see any. They stopped using our mailbox years ago.