Hopping away...

The tadpoles are now froglets and have been basking on the rocks, sitting on the top of the weed and climbing up the side of the tank over the last week. So, sadly I have had to start releasing them... They have been wonderful to watch and dominated my family-room life over the last couple of months. So, there have been 4 'batches' of 8 or 9 already released transported in little Tupperware boxes early in the mornings this week. I've had to find ponds without newts in! We have a tiny pond but it contains a well established ferocious family of great crested newts. They eat everything, which is why we don't have frogs! So my precious froglets have so far gone to a pond I dug at my mums house about 6 years ago which has a beautiful sheen of green pond weed, and to a huge secluded pond (a lake really) which belongs to some frog loving neighbours.
So here are some on their way..

And we have legs!

The tadpoles have legs! Long spindly little things tucked under their tails. Now and then there is a sudden plop from the tank as one nose dives up out of the water and back in again. We are now on to baby fish food as well as the much adored braised lettuce....

Getting bigger......

The tadpoles have moved home to the big tank and are now getting through 2 large braised lettuce leaves daily. They are fantastic - doing sudden leaps and dives, hiding in the rock crevices and rehearsing to be frogs. No legs as yet but wonderful golden stripes and little beady eyes.

The blueness of the garden is also getting bigger - I made a wonderful posy for E and like to think of it with her windowsill garden. Soon the garden will be an ocean of forget-me-nots.

Growth

The tadpoles have done a growth spurt this week and are now even more definitely frogs-in-waiting. They have big bulbous abdomens and tiny eyes, and close up are beautifully stippled in brown and green. Next step are legs! None to be seen yet but I guess they will be soon. As I understand it that's when they move from their vegetarian stage to being omnivores with a penchant for meat. As we are a vegetarian household I'm going to stock up on fish food instead...as well as a much bigger tank with stones for them to crawl out on to.

The garden has also been transformed this week with the rise in temperature. All the primroses have flowered at once in a mass of yellow and mauve, there is bird song in the mornings, the flowering currant is covered in amazingly pink blossom and the grass needs cutting!

Tadpole tales

The tadpole tank is still doing well and our remaining cat, Kirry, has taken to watching then dart and dive on our family room table. They actually look as though there are tiny frogs in the bodies of the tadpoles now - head, bulbous abdomen and a slightly stippled colour in the blackness. They love slightly braised lettuce and will rest in the shallows above the leaves as if to say how much they adore it.

An update on home life

So whilst we were lovely-lyming the tadpoles at home were growing.

We have a small tank on our family room table which had in it some donated jellied spawn from T and M's pond in Bridgwater. I have been photographing them daily since they arrived on the 10th march and since the mega death associated with hatching things have been pretty photogenic. I understand that there is something about a hatched tadpole that halts the development of the other eggs so although we started with several 100s of eggs it's not neglect on our part that has resulted in 'only' 30 or so possible frogs. They are very sweet but don't worry family people I haven't named them so no huge emotional attachment to traumatise myself with yet.

This is them today