A story of Butler's Pigmy Frog (Microhyla butleri) 巴氏小雨蛙
搵咗呢位小朋友足足三年，早在2020年已錄到佢哋雨後大合唱，當時我好肯定有海量嘅蛙蛙樂團包圍住我，但我竟半隻都揾唔到。利害的@tomleechunwa 及 @samuelho 憑聲辨認到是巴氏小雨蛙，耳殘及Seeing is Believing嘅我當然一直半信半疑!
三年來造訪該地點無數次，仍然係只聞其聲不見其影! 平常心啦! 但去年手多多影蝌蚪，又比
＠oryzias 發現當中有一隻巴氏幼體! 之後每次見蝌蚪都望多眼，但當刻意去搵又係唔見!
直到昨天@carlok_1邀我夜拍，眼利嘅年輕人在草堆見到一隻只有姆指甲大小(約12~14mm)的小蛙! 我瞄了一眼心想可能是常見的飾紋姫蛙幼體或溫室蟾，作為iNat curator也其實不想同一觀察資料重覆，就告訴＠carlok_1你自己影吧，但見他影得認真，小蛙也乖乖未走，心念一轉就補拍了兩張! 最後再由＠oryzias確認我哋首次拍到 巴氏的成蛙蛙蛙!
我呢個老seafood都不甘示弱，也幫呢位蜘蛛小達人揾到難得一見嘅開普紐蛛開餐情景! 日後再分享!
野攝就係咁好玩! 每次都唔知有乜好嘢等待你發現!
P.S. 諗深一層 ，差唔多到12月都仲見到唔少蛙類活躍，這是全球暖化影響生態的鐵証，其實都唔太值得高興!
Thank you @carlok_1 to discover this little fellow! It took me 3 years to get photo of the adult frog!
My first record was made In 2020 for I was surronded by a big symphony orchestra after summer rain. It's so weird that I couldn't see even one of them. Then @tomleechunwa and @samuelho recognized the croacking is below to Butler's Pigmy Frog. Since then, I have never met the frog. I am a "seeing is believing" type and really doubtful about the present of species. Until early this year, a tadpole of same was identified in one of the observation by @oryzias Then I tried to find another one but the effort in vein.
Until yesterday, I visited the site again with @carlok_1. The young spiderboy spotted some movement i the meadow and found a tiny frog size of thumbnail. At first I thought it was either a juvenile Ornate chorus frog (Microhyla fissipes) or a Green House frog (Eleutherodactylus planirostris). As an iNat curator, I would try to avoid duplicated observation and asked @carlok_1 to take the picture. @ carlok_1 is a passionate iNater and valued everything he found. His enthusiasm changed my mind and decided to take a few photos of this little frog. Later on I identified it as 飾紋姬蛙 (小雨蛙) Microhyla fissipes without seeing the difference. Soon @oryzias identified it's as the 巴氏小雨蛙 Butler's Pigmy Frog (Microhyla butleri)!! We found them!!!
So this is the fun ahout observing as we never know what we are going to find.
P.S. : Well, maybe I am overjoyed a little. This is nearly December and supposed to be winter time. according to lunar calendar. It may not be a good sign to find so many frogs around !!
P.S.2 : This blog post also remarked my 10th years in iNat. Thank you who ever helped and taught me so much!
The Frog - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192520183
ID Credit : ＠oryzias
Reference : https://metadata.froghome.org/page.php?namecode=380025
Check out my other observations.
Croaking : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/56237792
Tadpole : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/157378525
