Tadpole Redux

As I promised previously, We hiked down to check on the tadpoles this afternoon. A tree has fallen across the very end of the trail- forcing me to hoist my overly round booty over the waist high trunk. It was quite a sight, let me tell you. Husband chose to go downstream & around via the rocks in the water.

It rained quite hard last night. We discovered that the water had run over most of the exposed rocks leaving them covered with silt & leaves. The pools were completely clouded with rust colored sediment, unlike last week. There were mounds of foam in the eddys- swirls of buff clouds that would have looked perfectly at home in any Starbucks.

Tadpole Hole, however, is a protected, deep, nearly still puddle guarded by a giant fallen log & enough of a lip of stone that the leetle froggies were safe from the onrushing rainwater. I think there were two batches of eggs because there were peppercorn size tadpoles & there were pea size tadpoles. It was dusk, so they were mostly still, but they would dart away if you swirled the water near them.

Daughter discovered a muddy, shallow puddle barely covered with water full of wild rice sized & colored critters. They were very very still & didn't have easily seen legs (or fins), but we think they might be a type of tadpole (any other ideas out there?). Sorry for the food metaphors, but it was all I could think of.

Anyhow, the plan is to return at the end of the week & check on 'our guys' as Son #2 calls them.