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Only the first of February and already the first batches of frogspawn, six of them, have appeared in my small garden pond. The picture above, though it looks a bit rough, isn't a sketch but a close-up photo. The two green leaves of duckweed give an idea of the scale. The embrio tadpoles show clearly in the centre of each gelatinous blob and hopefully I may be able to get similar pictures as they develop.
Watch this space.
13th March 2020
My
tadpoles disappeared two days ago ( I blamed the heron that as been
flying round the village) but they have now reappeared hiding below a
mass of bubbles. This I have never seen before but, according to the
current issue of New Scientist, it is the way they breath at a certain
stage in their developmnet. Most tadpoles develop lungs as well as gills
and need air to survive, but they are too weak to break the surface
tension 'skin' to take in air. Instead they can form bubbles and take in
air from them.
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| Tadpoll Bubbles Click to enllarge |
The Tadpoles have grown enormously in the last week and are now attacking any likely food such as this unfortunate snail.
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| Tadpoles eating drownned snail Click to enllarge |
