Frog Catcher

A couple weekends ago, in the middle of all the rain we went for a walk in Pawtuckaway State Park. The backwoods of Pawtuckaway have trails that go around several swamps.

I spotted several frogs and because I didn’t have a zoom lens I was having a hard time taking pictures of them.  I found this guy on a rock and started snapping away.

My husband looks at me with a strange look in his eyes, “do you want him”.
“What?”
“Do you want the frog, I’ll catch him for you. I can do it.”
The excitement in his face, the emphasis on the word catch. I could see he was reliving his childhood in rural New Hampshire. So I said, “sure, then I can get a good pictures of the frog”

As he got going I could tell there was some ingrained technique involved in catching a frog.

I mean, look at the concentration. The cat like moves.

Then he went for the grab… and the miss.

Well not quite a miss, but the frog slipped right through his fingers. He seemed to think that when he was a kid, he just grabbed on as hard as he had to. Now that he’s a more aware adult he’s afraid of hurting the little guys. So growing older has hindered his mad frog catching skills.

Later in the walk Cooper was standing on the shore when I realized he was standing right next to a frog. He was so close I’m surprised he wasn’t standing on it. So I carefully approached it and it let me get some pictures.

And closer

Heck I think the lens was only a couple inches away from this one.

“I’ll catch him honey!”

“Drat, I swear I used to catch them by the bucketful when I was a kid”

I’m sure you did, and I’m sure your mom appreciated it.

Related posts:

1. The Swamp down the road
2. Hummingbirds
3. Newt
4. Filler