Tasty Tadpoles

“Or, should I say, poolishicious polliwogs, Quack, Quack!” Yeah, that’s Mr. and Mrs. Woodduck thanking me for brunch at Peterson Pond. Here’s the story: While doing some swamp drainage in the cow pasture, we noticed some gelatinous globs of what must be tree frog eggs. Knowing that they would soon be covered with a culvert, a rescue plan immediately took shape. Grab the vacation rental kids for a farm adventure!

So, kids from 3 to 10 who were staying that day had a ball scooping the eggs and catching individual tadpoles with buckets (and mud, of course) while parents took photos. We took them to Peterson pond’s warm edge and dumped them ceremoniously into their new home, proud to have done the amphibian kingdom a favor.

After they left and I continued working nearby, I was heralded by two ducks quacking in the sky, and plummeting skillfully with cupped wings in an almost vertical drop to the pond. You can guess what their first order of business was. Just hope they were tasty.