Next Hike

The next hike will be on Saturday, 6th July.

We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.

Last week we drove along the High Road turning off onto the Pocahontas Bay road and parked at the old Fire Lookout trailhead. Our destination was the Pocahontas East viewpoint where a BC Hydro microwave reflector looks like a big screen for an outdoor movie theatre. The long distance visibility was not all that great, but more than once we have hiked to this viewpoint for lunch and found ourselves in fog most of the time!

My photo this week is of a frog resting in a shallow puddle on the trail. This individual  is a good example of the "brown morph" of the common Pacific Tree Frog which also has very bright green versions.  For a long time I have wondered about these distinctly different colourations and now I see from a Wikipedia web site that there is an interesting explanation.  

These frogs have the ability to change color from brown to green. Previously, adults were thought to occur in two different fixed colors. Now, some of them have been found to be able to change between the two. They can also change from lighter to darker, shift from patterned markings to pure colors and vice versa, and even display combinations of colors, brown/green being the most frequent.

It goes on to explain that the changes sometimes happen within a few hours, but more often it's a much slower process taking weeks even months. A chameleon frog? 

JD.

A brown Pacific Tree Frog resting in a shallow puddle on the trail to Pocahontas East viewpoint.