When we were looking for a home to buy in this rural south Florida community nearly twenty years ago, a real estate agent introduced us to this property by telling us how charming she thought the street and creek names were. I was not impressed. To be honest, I was still digging in my heels about moving here to begin with, and there was very little, if anything, about the house that I liked. Louis, however, was totally enamoured with the property. He was convinced that a little acreage, a pond and a creek were the perfect place to raise our little boys. I suspect that he also envisioned that moving here would require the purchase of bigger and better power tools. He was right on both accounts.
After six months of living out of boxes in a disgusting rental home and not being able to find a home to buy, I surrendered, and we bought our little patch of earth on Pollywog Creek. The boys were thrilled, wasting no time finding the perfect spot to build "forts" and discovering favorite places along the creek to explore. They even swam in the pond, with it's mushy bottom. Not one to appreciate slime and dirt with the same enthusiasm, I watched from a distance and tossed them a bar of soap and the water hose when their adventures for the day had ceased. I knew that there were pollywogs in the pond, naturally, but I am more of the chrysalis/butterfly/flowers type, so I never encouraged the boys to remove the pollywogs from their habitat, where I figured the boys could watch them grow up to be frogs without bringing stinking pond water and other slimy, gooey stuff into the house.
A little more than two years ago, I noticed that people were coming to my blog looking for information about pollywogs. Some were looking for what to feed a pollywog. Others were looking for pictures. Quite obviously they were disappointed in their search engine for sending them here. I decided I should oblige them, but despite the efforts of the males in the family who have been willing to venture close enough to the pond to capture one, there hasn't been a visible pollywog here in a very long time. Until yesterday. The drought earlier this year left our pond lower than it has been in the years we have been here, and the dry bed lured me (and my camera) in for a closer look. I noticed that something was really stirring up the water...
Pollywogs! A gazillion pollywogs! So to all those searching for pollywog pictures, I now have a page for Google to take you!
This is awesome - and awesome photos too! I didn't even know what pollywogs were - had to google it. *blush* So I received my bit of eduction today. Thank you for that! :)
ReplyDeleteI've been a lurker, but I had to comment today. Those photo's are absolutely too cool. We have pollywogs at our cottage but I've never seen them. I do hear the frogs that are the end result.Good story...ciao
ReplyDeleteYup--there's a gazillion there!! A cool pic--something different!
ReplyDeleteSabine - Thank you. I didn't know what a pollywog was either when we moved here. We always just called them tadpoles.
ReplyDeleteRositta - I'm so thrilled that you came out of lurkdome and that you liked my photos. I'm hoping that most of these pollywogs are low enough in the food chain that loud croaking frogs at night are not just around the corner! =)
Rindy - definitely something different!
I had no idea what a pollywog was! Super photos, really enjoyed looking at them.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful story. I love yoru photos too! You must have a macro lense. . . maybe soemday I can get one with a new camera.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - pollywogs! :) They take about 3 weeks, don't they? Growing up in S. Illinois we raised tadpoles every spring.
ReplyDeleteBullfrog tadpoles are different, though - they take up to 4 years (!) to grow. They are about 3-4 inches long. (And UGLY!) Your little guys are cute! :)
Just FYI, those are TOAD tadpoles, not frogs. If you see them before they hatch you'll notice they are laid in long strings of eggs too (unlike frog tadpoles which are laid in clumps).
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! Glad to find people online who care about nature.
err I meant frog eggs are laid in clumps, toads in strings.
ReplyDeletetoad tadpoles (in north america) are black and tiny, with very round bodies... and they usually occur in huge groups.
If you watch carefully, some day soon (they only take a few months to develop) when they all morph into toads you will see hundreds of very tiny toads, about this long <____> jumping around in the grass -- its very easy to kill them by accident (especially mowing the grass) so be careful.
Cheers!
I was just talking to my wife about a day when I was in college(1983), and a friend and I found a gazillion pollys in a pool of rain water next to the Alapaha River in north Florida (west of Jennings). We gathered quite a few to transfer to the college fountain as a prank. I'm quite sure that these were BULLFROG pollys, as summer quarter was serenaded by the 'Song of the Bull Frogs'. I suppose these pollys made it somehow(maybe by a polly-friend)to the creek that runs through V.S.C.(now V.S.U.), in South Ga.
ReplyDeleteGreat Photos! Thanks for the site. Sincely, K.
Thanks for the comment and story, Keith. What a funny prank! Blessings!
ReplyDeleteJust FYI, those are TOAD tadpoles, not frogs. If you see them before they hatch you'll notice they are laid in long strings of eggs too (unlike frog tadpoles which are laid in clumps).
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! Glad to find people online who care about nature.