outdoor laboratory
The annual spring collection has been done.
tadpole!
see his face?!
Jack collected about 15 to 20 tadpoles before we cleaned the pool. We have a lot of treefrogs and spring peepers, so we imagine these tadpoles will grow up to be one of those types of frogs.
This year Jack was determined to find frogs’ eggs, which he saw last year but didn’t collect because he didn’t realize what they were until he read about them later.
He described exactly how they looked to his dad — “Black on one side, white on the other, suspended in jelly” — and was rewarded this week when dad saw some in the pool! He said he only knew what they were because of Jack’s excellent description.
frogs’ eggs!
observational drawing
Jack collected three dozen eggs and is keeping them in a separate container from his tads. (If you are collecting them from the wild you should probably not collect more than a dozen — but these poor eggs were laid in our pool and were doomed anyway.)
In a warm room frogs’ eggs will develop and hatch in about a week. Cooler temperatures will delay their hatching. Use a magnifying lens to examine an egg. Each egg has a black part and a white part. The white part is the yolk. It is used for food by the developing tadpole. Each day you can see changes in the dark part. You’ll see the head and the tail of a tadpole develop. You’ll see the tadpole begin to move in the jelly. — Pets in a Jar: Collecting and Caring for Small Wild Animals
studying the eggs
observational drawing
today jack realized these eggs were no longer round!
illustration from the “pets in a jar” book (see above for link)
jack’s observational drawing of the older eggs
So we have two graduations to look forward to — the eggs turning into tadpoles and the tadpoles turning into frogs. We will keep you informed as the situation develops.
See also: Tadpolarium