magickcanoe.com Blog

April 27th — I checked on the wood frog eggs while out for my evening walk here at the farm. During my last inspection on April 19th, I’d found the eggs developing into tiny tadpoles with miniscule tails.

This evening, when I first arrived at the site of the egg mass, it was nowhere to be seen. However, in the past, when I’ve monitored wood frog eggs, at about this age, the mass starts to turn brown and sink — seeming to be gradually decomposing — so I looked for something in the water below where the mass had been floating during my previous visit. Using a branch, I fished up what was left of the egg mass — some tattered brown fluffy membrane with a number of small tadpoles inside. When disturbed, the tadpoles burrow into the remains of the egg mass. Although it may be falling apart, they seem to derive some security by sticking with the mass until it disintegrates. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to follow the development of the tadpoles for too much longer as the mass is really looking pretty rough, so this may be the last update. However, I’ll try to net a few tadpoles later on this spring to follow their transformation from tadpoles to frogs.

Tags: Wood frogs, Rana sylvatica, frog eggs, tadpoles