We have this precocious, curious, adventurous and kind hearted daughter. Two years ago she collected a couple tadpoles from a ditch. To our surprise they survived and turned into those wonderful green tree frogs. They were so cute! Because a cage is no place for a frog we let them go near a friends pond. Well, this last spring in 2021 we found a bunch of frog eggs in a ditch that was quickly drying up. I caved when she asked if we could keep at least part of the batch of eggs. I thought it was great that our girl was playing in a jelly packed blob of frog eggs in a mucky old ditch. It really made me think of some of my favorite times as a child. What I did not fathom was the amount of frogs that might emerge from even half the eggs laid. It was still incredible to watch them first hatch out of their eggs as tiny tadpoles then grow and grow…in a bucket no less with just our well water to keep them safe. They survived! She fed them amphibian food at first and changed their water when it got a bit murky. Almost every single one of those tadpoles survived. We had so many little froglets by the end of summer. We kept one little frog that was dubbed Puddles in a small frog habitat for a couple months. It was the first one to lose its tail. As a frog we needed to provide live food. Oh for heavens sake…flies…we had to go buy fruit flies of all things. I was actually a bit worried they weren’t frogs but bullfrogs that are invasive. When our little Puddles got a bit bigger we could tell it was one of our native species called Red Legged frog. I couldn’t image trying to humanely kill a whole five gallon bucket of invasive bull frogs. Big sigh of relief for me. As the little froglets lost their tails one by one our girl would collect them and deliver them to surrounding ponds and creeks. This one above I got a good photo of right after being released in our local creek. It hopped right up on a rock and warmed itself staying as still as possible so as not to become somethings food source. I cannot express properly how amazing these little creatures are. Not very tough per se, they die often from absorbing chemicals and such into their skin, but somehow they survive a summer in a five gallon bucket. Well after some convincing our girl agreed that Puddles needed to be in its natural habitat at least to procreate for next years little frogs. She was so proud of her little frog and is curious where it might be now. Oh the wonders of this world. I am so thankful for these moments, ones I would never have gotten to enjoy without a little one around to show me.
God's Art Photography 