They showed up in our lily pond about two weeks ago. Hundreds of microscopic tadpoles. We saw them last year, too. And we were clueless as to what exactly they were and how they may have arrived.
Annually, Nancy and I either catch or buy a few bullfrog tadpoles, which lose their tails and evolve into frogs later that summer. But the bullfrog ‘poles are much larger than these tiny creatures.
My Frog Guru, Elaine Callaghan, thinks they might be Wood Frogs.
Wood Frogs are scattered across North America. Scientists find them interesting because of their high degree of freeze tolerance.
Adult wood frogs are little fellows, less than 3-inches overall. When startled, they have the ability to dive into leaf litter and seemingly disappear.
Elaine says they are rather unattractive critters, slow moving but loquacious when breeding.
“They lay strings of eggs and then disappear,” she says. “When the eggs hatch in my ponds, I don’t have to feed my fish for several weeks. We have had two sets so far this spring.”
I once worried than when/if one of my pet frogs ever hopped out of the pond (it’s about two feet tall), he’d never be able to get back up and in. For frogs, that’s no problem. They know where the water is and how to get there. I suppose the Wood Frogs knew as well. They hopped up into the pond, laid their eggs and vamoosed. If we had a gold fish or koi in our pond, he would eat well, but as it is, the tiny little tadpoles have nothing to worry about – except how to get out of the pond and off to the woods.