Tadpoles

In spite of the recent tree chopping to save the bog at the Indiana Dunes the tiny frogs are doing well and taking over the puddles in holes left behind by the heavy machinery.

Here are a few of hundreds of tadpoles that are easy to miss unless you know beforehand that they are there. No bigger than a hulled sunflower seed, these tadpoles are in a race with time. Will the puddle dry up before they mature? Or will the recent rains save them? Only time will tell.

  

Puddle Life

An unassuming service road used by Indiana Dunes and National Park Staff, traversed on foot by hundreds of hikers and joggers and full of life this year, same as last.

Many people drive through or walk past these puddles every day without looking down. What they would find on closer examination is an occasional frog, thousands of tadpoles, mayfly, damsel fly, and dragonfly larva.

Puddles full of life.  

Daisy Fleabane

Nature's cycle has made 2010 another daisy fleabane year in this corner of Indiana. Fields are white with the tiny flowers of this member of the Aster family.

These photo's were taken during my Kankakee fishing expedition.

The last "Daisy Fleabane year" was 2006 which seemed to be a hot and drier year than we have had of late.

Blue Herons appear around every bend of the trail this year too. The drier conditions mean that backwaters are drying up and tadpoles and frogs are plentiful food.

On a hot and humid day in 2006 I walked up to a pool that was drying up; stranding hundreds of big bullfrog tadpoles in various stages of development. With nothing but my hands to use as a container I carried as many as I could to the nearest water; probably robbing the herons of some easy dinner.

Each time I returned to the pool to get more tadpoles there would be more tadpoles crawling onto my blue fishing rod case; I think they knew I was their only chance; or maybe they just liked the case's blue color.

Daisy Fleabane was once thought to repel fleas; thus the name.      

A Story of Tiny Tads becoming Tiny Frogs

At the end of the Calumet Bike Trail near the Indiana Dunes there is a service road that is often flooded in the spring and early summer as the bog creeps in.

During this period of flooding tiny frogs move in, lay eggs and miniature tad poles turn into more tiny frogs. The process takes as long as it needs to...the tadpoles take their time turning into frogs as long as the puddles don't dry up.

In years when the weather is hot and dry the tadpoles may turn to frogs within 2 weeks. In other, wetter years the tads take their time and could take a month or longer to become miniature frogs. Here's a photo album of this year's youngsters:

A tadpole on June 17th

In various stages of development on June 26 (compare the size of the frogs and tads to the newsprint and cell phone in the background)

 

Becoming a frog on June 26th

Tiny Frogs on July 1st