Song of the Pond

Late in the spring, when the weather is warm, listen for the song of the pond. Sometimes you don't have to listen all the carefully, because the unmistakable trill of the toads and frogs is deafening. That was the case when I snapped these pictures at Kinsey Park pond during those warm days in early May. Now that the weather is again warming, the singers should be out again.

I find their song rather appealing. It reminds me of when we had African Swimming Frogs as pets. They would trill at night, hoping to attract a mate. Alas, we only had guy frogs. But their song was pleasant just the same.

The young frogger who had captured the group in my photos had quite a collection in her tub. Her grandmother was hoping for catch and release. There are also large frog tadpoles in the pics.

I had been to the pond the day before and found the toads singing away, among other things. I will keep my eyes peeled for tiny black toad tadpoles. (They look like swimming raisins.)

My son and I raised toad tadpoles when he was little, and I have to admit it was great fun. We had the tank sitting on the kitchen table for weeks it seemed. We fed them cooked spinach and watched them mature. Tadpoles eat algae, so if you don't have algae rich water, you may use tap water. If it is city water, let it sit for a day to rid it of the chlorine. If you use pond water, strain it first. We had some pond water that had some weedy clumps in it. Unfortunately, it also had some dragonfly nymphs in it. Those nymphs devoured 3/4 of our tadpoles before we discovered their presence!

Once the tadpoles get their legs and lose their tails, be sure they have a rock to climb on. They will need to breathe oxygen from the air at this point. We released ours back into the "wild". Be sure to let toads go near a body of water. Frogs obviously need to be released into the water--preferably from the creek or pond you took them from. (We got our toad tadpoles from a ditch.)

For more information on keeping tadpoles, see Pets In a Jar--a great source of the care and feeding of little critters. Hope you enjoy 'em; we had a hoppin' good time with ours.


Links: Practically Speaking, Betterbrookfield, RandyMelchert, Jay Weber, Vicki McKenna, The Right View Wisconsin, CNS News, Mark Levin, Breitbart BigGovernment, The Heritage Foundation