Tadpole Update

Junior lost the tadpoles that were living in the garage. A raccoon ate them. Left the bucket behind, though. Because it had gotten so hot, I thought that the tadpoles needed a refreshing breath of air and moved them onto the driveway for a while. My bad.

Some neighbors very kindly let Junior catch tadpoles at their pond when he's with his dad or me, so we trooped off this morning to replenish the stock. The pond sparkled with life—or maybe it was tadpoles taking their last breaths. Thousands of little fish have hatched in the week or so since we've been there—and fish are frogs' mortal enemies as we read in Frog Heaven (reviewed here).

In the shallows under a little bridge Junior spotted a prehistoric thing that looked like a cross between a snake and a catfish. I'm pretty sure it was an American Eel. Junior tried to catch it three times, but it escaped. I don't know what I would have done if he had caught it. Let it spend the night in the bucket  then banish it forever back to the pond? If catfish skank you out, try looking at an eel. Worse, I promise.

Junior is reading a lot on his own these days, mostly Calvin & Hobbes, but he's also fond of these picture-book read-alouds: Douglas Florian's Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings; Jeremy Tankard's Grumpy Bird, reviewed at Seven Impossible Things, and Susan Meddaugh's Hog-Eye, recommended by one of our librarian buddies. Hog-Eye is about a little pig who puts a big spell on a wolf. Goldilocks meets the Three Pigs.

So, there's nature, eel wrestling, and books here, with day camp in the afternoons. That's the news from Lake Pond Woebegon today.

Comments

[wisteria]

Sounds like a wonderful day, except for the coon accident. Junior won't want to go back to school.

[Susan T.]

Wisteria, we even watched the end of the video of "Bringing Up Baby," which came in at the library. It was a really nice day.

[TadMack]

I love Lake Woebegon. And its pond variant as well. Visiting in Louisiana once I caught an eel -- while Bayou/Delta fishing. (Why? Because my uncles thought it was cute to hand a vegetarian a pole and see what she did.) As I screamed and dropped the pole (predictably - but it IS so gross to look at) Mr. Eel ate -- ATE the hook and sinker and snapped the end off the pole.

I'm thinking your back pond is a quieter place without the eel. The new tadpoles appreciate your efforts!

[Susan T.]

TadMack, I would have done EXACTLY the same thing. They are AWFUL looking. At first I thought maybe it was a gigantic leech. Ick.

[cloudscome]

What fun! You should submit this to the Learning in the Great Outdoors carnival over at Miss Rumphius this month. I wish we had a tadpole pond to explore... we'll have to go looking.

[Judy]

I was next to a pond at a golf course one day, and when I went to hit my ball near the edge of the pond, I looked down, and the ground was literally covered with 'bugs' jumping everywhere. And I mean covered--there was not a two-inch space that did not have a jumping creature on it. Turns out they were baby frogs, no larger than half my fingernail...they must have just turned from tadpoles and made their way to land. What a sight that was! They were there about three days before they either went back to the water or were eaten by the birds and what-have-you around the pond.

[Little Willow]

Bringing Up Baby is HYSTERICAL!

Rumor has it you're doing the Poetry Friday round-up today. I'm in with King of Griefs from the novel Letters From Rapunzel by Sara Lewis Holmes.

http://slayground.livejournal.com/258235.html

[Kelly Fineman]

If I'm correct, and you're hosting Poetry Friday today, then I've got my post here: http://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/217467.html

I'm away and using the computer in the business center, and probably won't have a chance to get back on today, so if you aren't hosting, could you do me a HUGE favor and let them know where to find me? Mwah!

Kelly

[Susan T.]

LW and Kelly, thank you for the reminder. We lost power for a while this morning, and I wasn't thinking poetry! Now I am.