Nature Study Indoors-Toads!
Apr 11th, 2006 by lapazfarm
Today is day 8 of our observations of our toad tadpoles. One evening last week Superboy spotted a bunch of eggs in our smaller spring-fed stream. They were tiny black dots encased in long spirals of clear jelly.Thinking they were frog eggs, we collected just a few them to study indoors. Once we got them indoors we looked them up in our Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study and found that due to the spiral shape of the egg mass, they were actually toad eggs. We got a large jar and created a nice habitat for them with rocks, sand, and plants collected from their natal stream.
Each day we take a look and see what progress the little guys have made. Superboy also puts one under the dissecting scope each day to draw and make notes on the more detailed changes in a page of his nature journal. It is amazing how fast they have changed from little black motionless dots into active little swimmers with recognizable features. We will most likely set them free soon, as we seem to have collected more than we thought and have ended up with several dozen little tadpoles, but not without first trying to identify exactly what kind of toad we have here.
This has been a fun and relaxed way to bring a little nature indoors and learn about its wonders without the pressure of experiments or lesson plans. Plus, we’ve made some new friends!
That is so cool! We just raised a frog tadpole. I love your habitat and journal.
We have a garden pond with a Mr. and Mrs. Frog in it. We get tadpoles every year….but the egg sacks are always in the “muck” at the bottom of the pond, so we never see those. Thanks for sharing!
What a wonderful science study! Superboy’s journal is so nice. Question; I noticed your microscope in the one picture. We are contemplating finally purchasing one. What brand is yours and are you satisfied with the quality for the studies you do?
P.S. I showed Josh the pictures of your farm with your garden and Superboy and sis playing in the creek and he wants to come live with you lol.
Barb,
The microscope you saw is this one. I got it from the University on “permanent loan.” It is great for looking at stuff where you want lower magnification (20 or 40X) but greater depth of field. Not good for slides, high magnification, etc. but really good for looking at bugs, tadpoles, and the like. I also have a really cool Wolfe field scope, similar to this one. Only 40X also, but great for taking out in the field due to light weight, no mechanical parts and prismatic light source. The Wolfe is the only scope in that price range that I would recommend. Be very careful about getting an inexpensive scope with claims of magnifications up to 1000X. Typically the optics are not good and they can be very frustrating. Better to have good quality optics at lower magnification. I am still working on getting a compound scope with higher magnification ($$$), but these two have served us very well so far.
Theresa
PS: Tell Josh Superboy would love to have him here!
FANTASTIC!
What a great jar for the toads, and I love the notebook entry. This blog is always such an inspiration.
Great photos…makes me want to get out there for pond study! I have never seen toad eggs before. Your house sure sounds like fun!