There are tadpoles and then there are !!!TADPOLES!!!

I've written about the mass arrival of the tadpoles back in late March, but most of those tadpoles have either grown and perhaps transformed into frogs or fallen victim to predators or natural conditions as nature would have it. We continue to see tadpoles but in smaller numbers. They are obviously of different species as some very small and some are, shall we say, BIG. We were able to catch a few of the smallest and largest to give you a comparison.
The smaller tadpoles are among the smallest we have seen. The large one is not the biggest but close to it. If you look closely at the the back of the body you will be able to see the hind legs beginning to emerge on the larger tadpole.

Here's
another view where perhaps you
can see the new legs
more clearly.




These tadpoles (especially the larger ones) are unbelievably fast in darting to new cover or burrowing themselves into the mud bottom when disturbed. They virtually disappear before your eyes. We were lucky we found some in the 'fish pen' we constructed for smaller fish. We hope to monitor their transformation into frogs and will update with pictures if we are lucky enough to get some.

By the way, we aren't sure what frogs all these tadpoles will become. We feel that some may be spring peepers and that perhaps others are various woodland frogs that come down to the pond to mate and lay their eggs. Of course, due to their size, we presume those larger tadpoles will become bullfrogs as we have many in and around the pond.