Things are Changing

  The sun was shining, a slight breeze was blowing and I was knee deep in the Frog Pond!  Yep, it is that time of year again where the little pond needs a good cleaning.  There is not much better way to do this than just wade in and start pulling out the excess water hyacinths, branches and wads of leaves that have accumulated over the winter.  The chore is not one that I relish other than the fact that I get to be "up close and personal" with the critters that live in the pond.  Some make me smile while others can give me the heebie-jeebies.  I am usually ok with the larger critters that live in the murky waters but those squiggly larvae of assorted bugs sometimes get to me and there are a ton of those swimming about beneath the water lilies and hyacinths.

  This afternoon, I found hundreds of tadpoles in different stages of morph.   While I tried to save each tadpole that I found, it was difficult to do so as I pulled out the huge wads of hyacinths.  It seems that the roots are the perfect hiding places for the little buggers.  Some of the tadpoles were quickly morphing into froglets.  It was strange to see how quickly they could change when it was a necessity.  Back on the farm, during a drought, the large pond would start to dwindle.  By the time the pond became a mere puddle, the tadpoles were quickly morphing out of necessity.  Had they not been ready to grow those legs, they would have perished in the hot sun.  It was the same here, today.  As I tossed the hyacinths up on the bank, some of the larger tadpoles almost immediately "sprouted" their little legs. With these immature limbs they were able to push themselves back into the water of the pond (with a little help from me!)  This is one of the few times that I have been without the camera.  It probably would not have been a good idea to be out in the middle of the little pond with a non-waterproof camera.  The photographs were taken after the cleaning was completed.

  The pond has been cleared of the clogging hyacinths just in time for another round of egg-laying.  The bullfrogs have already done their thing as have the toads.  This week will see the little tree frogs being quite busy.  Its a good thing I like frogs!