Angel's Pond: Emergence

One of the coolest life experiences I've had has been the joy of watching tadpoles turn into frogs and then leave to find their way in the world. I was so happy last year when I made the decision to save the remaining tadpoles in our seasonal pond and I met Lucky. This year it's twice as much fun because there are two ponds now with the addition of Angel's Pond!

I spend a few minutes each day at each pool to see how everyone is doing, smiling and giggling at how adorable they all are. The tadpoles wiggle around, coming up to the surface for a bubble of air and then sinking back down to the bottom...or perhaps they will cruise around the surface for a few moments, soaking up the sunshine's warmth on their back. The froglets hang out in big piles where I have rocks placed so they can be out of the water. They've got lots of room to spread out, but nooooo, they like to stack up in a frogpile! And sometimes a froglet like the one above will hang out at the ramp I have which leads out of the pond, and to me, it looks so much like the icon of evolution.

The change from tadpole to frog is so amazing to think about. If you have a moment, stop what you're doing, close your eyes and try to imagine what it would be like to have a tail, live in the water and have gills, and then, over the course of several DAYS (some transform slower), to lose that tail and have legs pop out where your gills were (because you breathe air now), and more legs pop out at the base of your tail stump! You used to have rasps in your mouth to scrape off algae to eat, but your mouth has changed too, and now you have a large mouth to eat insects and other animals! It's incredible! All we do is get big once we're born...frogs go through a complete transformation!! Isn't nature fascinating?!! :)