Saturday 2 April 2011

Tadpoles Galore

It was only 22nd March when I photographed the newly laid frog spawn. All told 6 lots were laid and, as last year, I moved 4 of the lots to the 'nursery' pond so any hatching tadpoles wouldn't get eaten by the fish in the main pond.  Today when I first looked at the spawn I thought it had failed as it was just a flat mass of jelly but on closer observation there they were - scores of tiny tadpoles.

Tadpole 020411

I hope they thrive as well as last year's batch did when I was able to return scores of them back in the main pond when their back legs were beginning to appear and they seemed big and strong enough to survive in there.

A short piece of video taken today. The tadpoles are about 11mm long:



Still and video taken with the Panasonic Lumix TZ7

6 comments:

  1. Glad they are doing well. Thanks for the video.

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  2. It was a relief, Adrian, when they started to move.

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  3. Wow! That didn't take long did it? Very active little wiggly things! Nice of you to give them a good chance in the nursery. Great closeups!

    I'm wondering if you could wander over to Mo's place and see if you can help identify her tree with the pinkish cones. You may be familiar with the tree. From my searching it may be a Lawson Cypress... Thanks

    http://asmallholding.blogspot.com/2011/04/fruity-blossoms-and-fir-tree-question.html#comment-form

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  4. Hello Glo. It was very fast. I'm sure it took longer last year. The TZ7 lets me get very close. In fact I was so close to the water my shirt sleeve got soaked!

    I have put a possible answer on Mo's site. See here: (third photo)

    http://www.evergreenspecies.com/2009/07/california-incense-cedar-calocedrus.html

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  5. That is good news John! Nice clear piece of video too. I don't have a pond but have been looking for weeks now in all the likely places while out on walks but have not seen any frog spawn whatsoever!

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  6. Hello Jan. Things are getting active now the water is warming up a bit. I spotted two of the newts yesterday so they survived the harsh winter OK.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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