Day 307 > A Surprising Encounter

I dis tinctly remem ber thinking to myself as I walked through the fast fading autumn woods a week or so ago that opportunities to capture photos of many of the small creatures that had been so prevalent throughout the spring and summer were more or less coming to an end. With this realization I felt rather disappointed not to have included in the project things like snakes or frogs which I had so frequently seen during the warmer months.
With that in mind, it was a welcome surprise today to happen upon this Leopard Frog soaking up a few last rays of dappled November sunlight while resting on an old washed up timber on the bank of the Fox River. Like so many other encounters with frogs in the past, I expected it would quickly leap away but it stayed put and seemed to regard me not warily but in a sort of matter of fact way, as if to say "What, ya never seen a frog before?"
My intention in stopping by the river this morning was to capture a large ship about to pass under the tall bridge at its mouth and not expecting the frog to stick around, my mind stayed on the original subject. Frog continued to bask and since I had a few minutes before the ship was in position, I said hello and sat down beside my new friend, expecting Frog to flee finally, with me so close but still it stayed. Realizing at that point that a photo opportunity was quite literally staring me in the face, I carefully moved to Frog's sunny side and fire off a few shots.
Once again I post my daily photo completely surprised at what I've encountered...