This shot, along with the second shot was an amazing event of being in exactly in the right place at exactly the right time. I owe it all to a little girl on one of my tours. She called me over to see the frog she claimed was sitting in this pond. I peered into the murky water and saw nothing. She insisted there was a frog down there. As I strained tro see what she saw – I did see two big eyes emerge from down deep in the pond. It seemed to belong to a frog, but as it drifted upwards towards the surface, I saw it had something in its mouth. I just happened to havew my camera in my hand and was ready when the frog broke the surface of the water with this prize in its mouth. CLICK, and CLICK again as the frog dove back down into the pond . I had maybe two seconds at most to get off the two shots. Amazingly, both came out. The second shot showed the frog had gulped and had most of the dragonfly in its mouth before it dove.
This is a Mountain Yellow Legged Frog, found only in the western Sierra Nevada. Most populations of these frogs are disappearing due to a chytrid fungus. There are still a few ponds left like this one in Yosemite that have some healthy frogs.
This is a Mountain Yellow Legged Frog, found only in the western Sierra Nevada. Most populations of these frogs are disappearing due to a chytrid fungus. There are still a few ponds left like this one in Yosemite that have some healthy frogs.