Gray treefrogs at one time were extirpated on Staten Island.  The species was no more in existence.  In a project by some parks officials, this beautiful species of treefrog was reintroduced.  I was aware that there were some on the island, but it was to my surprise that I heard the deafening trills of this hyla species singing in the pond off of Rockland Avenue last night after a long period of thunderstorms during the day.  Noel and I raced home to grab our waders, flashlights and cameras.  Along the way we contacted Doug and Deb Donnelly and quickly pursuaded them to join us back at the greenbelt in about a half hour. 

We walked for about 2 hours through Buck's Hollow and were amazed at what we found.  We spotted hundreds of gray treefrogs.  In fact, they were everywhere we turned.  We even spotted some in the bushes as we followed the trail around the woods.  We were glad to see that not only were they all over the place, but they in fact had been reproducing.  We spotted tadpoles all over the pond.  Some were green frog tadpoles, but we also spotted many gray treefrog tadpoles. 

I embedded a video of one of the gray treefrogs we found.  Not only were we luck enough to get many great photos, but we were also able to get some video footage of them calling.  Take a look!