The last few years it seems like my favorite times of year are tadpole season and menhaden season. Menhaden show up in the urban upper Bay most years beginning in late August and i take every chance I can to go watch the schools.

Tadpole season is right now. In Providence’s North Burial Ground there are two ponds. Many people are familiar with the bigger of the two ponds. It sits below the esker, has vegetated buffers, has a bench near the point under the Oak.

It is a lively place. Over the years I have seen Otter, Muskrat, turtles, frogs, fish, 3 kinds of herons, egrets, swifts, swallows, bats, and myriad smaller birds. But my favorite is the jumping tadpoles. Today the overwintering bullfrog tadpoles were jumping. They are about 3. inches long, pretty solidly built, and with hundreds in the pond there is a steady stream of tadpoles rising an inch above the surface of the water. I am not sure why they rise, but it is fun to watch.

Yesterday Michael pointed out a jelly mass with hundreds of tiny black eggs sitting on the surface next to the shore, so I will be keeping my eyes on those the next few weeks. And today, for the first time all spring, I got a good look at the big bullfrog that I regularly hear jump when I get to the pond. I managed to get close enough for a good look without spooking it. My lucky day.

The other pond is near the maintenance building in a low spot in an open field. It fills with road runoff when it rains, and is probably pretty close to the level of the river, which is flowing under I-95 when it goes by. Most of the year it appears to be nearly devoid of life, but for a few weeks in the spring, right now in fact, there are hundreds of Grey Tree Frog tadpoles.

Right now it looks like there are 3 size classes of tadpoles. Probably born 3 or 4 days apart. Yesterday it seemed like it was hatching day for the youngest tadpoles. Right on the shore line in the tiny coves the shoreline was black with tadpoles. Thousands in a square foot. Today the congregations were gone, and it looked like there were a lot fewer tadpoles. My explanation of the day is that the Killdeer that nest in the field seem to have fledged young birds that are now leaving the nest. When i got to the pond a larger bird and two smaller birds seemed to be hunting in the shallows. They could have been catching anything, but the obvious choice is tadpoles.

Over the next few weeks it will be enjoyable to watch the tadpoles grow, and then grow legs. One day I will come by and there will be hundreds of little frogs in the grass next to the pond, and two days later they will be dispersed for the year, and if you did not know, you would never guess what a spectacle of life you have missed.

June 26th, 2011

I am thinking the bullfrog tadpoles in the NBG pond are starting to develop legs, and it almost seems as if there are more frogs every day from last year’s tadpoles, but it is unclear.

At the little pond the Grey Tree Frogs have been starting to leave the pond, and dispersing to the trees, with the first sighting of transformed froglets on Wednesday. Friday I went with my little niece so I brought a net for netting tadpoles, and she loved them. I also got to see the various stages of leg development and how it related to tail shrinkage. Today the transforming tadpoles were sitting on a white piece of trash in the pond and with the contrasting background, as opposed to the mud of the pond, it was easy to see the legs. Almost every tadpole has legs, and I expect they pond will be empty of tadpoles in a week or 10 days.