Tadpole Activity?

I, and several Museum Staff and Guests, noticed a swarm of Bullfrog tadpoles at the northwest corner of the Wetlands during the first part of December. Water is flowing through a pipe and emptying into the water at that corner of the Wetlands. Tadpoles had collected around the pipe in large numbers. I can’t say what they were doing, but it seemed as though they were feeding on something coming out of the pipe. Or, perhaps the water coming from the pipe was warmer than the surrounding water. For whatever reason, there were a considerable number of very active tadpoles concentrated around the outflow of the pipe.

On subsequent visits to the site towards the end of the period there were still tadpoles present, but never in the numbers seen previously. Where did they go? Again, I can’t say for sure what drew the tadpoles there or to where they eventually dispersed, but perhaps one of the two resident Great Blue Herons that stalk among the willows also noticed the party that was apparently going on in that little corner of the Wetlands.

Adult Bullfrogs and Yellow-bellied Turtles were out basking in the warmth of December 10 when temperatures climbed to near 70 degrees.

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