This weekend, we added to the list of Things I Never Thought We Could Do In Our Backyard. There is only so much nature one can expect to experience in a freshly landscaped community of new constructions. Our backyard is sod. Our "woods" are a stand of eight pine trees. It's not the acre of trees and rocks and kid-scale wilderness that I grew up with, but all the same, we're finding quite a bit of wildlife and adventure here for the exploring. Thunderstorms almost every afternoon have made some soggy spots in our neighborhood, and the area behind our house, where the kids took a kayak ride in the spring, has become a tree frog breeding ground.
So Saturday and Sunday morning were spent catching tadpoles.
Don and I dorked it up first, by going out in our boots late Friday night, with a flashlight, to get a look at the frogs who have been making such a ruckus out there. Their cacophony suggested dozens of little chirpers but only two let themselves be spotted. We could hardly wait to take the kiddos out in the morning.
Trying to teach the skills of "step slowly, scoop quickly" took some time. William really just wanted to stomp through the puddles up to his knees. Amy was determined to catch the tadpoles herself, and with some practice, finally got the hang of it. Don kinda ruined my fun by pointing out just how many bacteria and parasites were likely thriving in the stagnant water. Yum.
After catching a whole slew of the little wiggly guys we decided to "keep" the biggest one that already had legs and two of the teeny tiny ones. They are living rather happily in their muddy little aquarium on the back porch right now. Within a day our big guy sprouted arms, and his tail is diminishing. What fun to watch this transformation.
Kinda like watching these little tadpoles grow up...
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