Wouldn't you know it, I sure did, that all but one of our toad tadpoles had turned into tiny toads by the time we got back from vacation!  But what a blessing that this one little tadpole held out for us!  My very good friend Kari was tadpole-sitting them for us and had to release them as soon as they transformed because if she didn't they, for some reason, would die very quickly.  I'm so thankful for her taking care of them for me!  So when I picked them up yesterday there were three in the container, two of which had just changed into toads.

Can you see the two little toads camouflaged on the rock (click on the picture to enlarge)?

Here's a photo of one of them swimming around.  As you can see he still has just a nob of his little tail left.  We read that the tail gets absorbed back into the body, it doesn't just fall off as some think.

So, after observing them for a bit, we immediately took them down to our creek and realeased them.  So now remains one little tadpole.  I couldn't get any good pictures on him because the water is too murky.

I also wanted to share some pictures from a couple of days before we left on vacation.  The kids and their friend Danny were checking out the small pool of water and mud over next to our lot and found lots of little baby toads hoping around.

This one is a bit slow in absorbing his tail!  I just think they are so cute!

A quick glance over to the watery part revealed lots more tadpoles in various stages of changing.  It's hard to see it in the photo, but several were just moments away from coming out of the water.

The whole process of watching this transformation from eggs to baby toads has been priceless for us!  The kids and I have learned so much, especially an even deeper appreciation for God's magnificent creation.  To think that something can start out as a little black blob swimming about breathing underwater with gills and then transform into a little toad crawling out of the water with legs and having lungs to breath out of water is truly breathtaking to me.  But when we take the time to stop for just a bit to truly observe His creation, this is just what happens.

I look forward to collecting more eggs next Spring!

To see all the posts from our experiences click on Amphibian Study.

One more photo before we leave!  You can see their legs now!  Click to full size.  Back to packing!

The update for our toad tadpoles is coming a little early this time because...we have LEGS!  Several of the tadpoles, seemlingly overnight, grew little tiny back legs!  I so wish I had a HD camera so that you could see the little "paper-thin" legs swishing around when they swim!LOL  But I think you may only be able to see the little "nobs" where they come out from (you'll notice them at the back of the body, front of tail).   Also, I noticed that on some of them, particulary the ones that are turning a brownish color, you can see their eye bulges starting!  And in these pictures taken with my new camera :), you can really see details of the tails well.  When watching back the video below, I noticed that a couple of times when they would swim, I could see a very quick glimpse of them, I hope you can too.   You can click on any of these photos to see full size.

Now here's the bummer, just as they are starting all these changes, we are leaving soon for vacation!  WAAHHHHH!  Perhaps, maybe, they won't change very much more until we get back!

All the original posts and updates are under this link:

Amphibian Study

For our tadpole update this time, we have a special host, Miss Gabby Rose!

We definitely do not have as many tadpoles as when we started, so I know some of them haven't made it.  Since moving them outside on our deck, we've not been watching them as closely, so I'm sure we've not noticed.  But the ones that are still alive are flourishing quite well.   We just changed the water (always using water from our creek), and they seem even more active since then.  We also added a very large rock to the water just in case any of them start growing legs.

I've noticed lately, especially on the bigger ones, that their sides are bulging out a little more.  All the sources that I've read from say they take a total of six to eight weeks to turn from tadpole to toad.  We are just a little over four weeks.

Our little baby toad tadpoles are still coming along just fine.  Their growing rate seems to have slowed down now just a bit, but still going.   They've definitely gotten a little longer and a little wider since my last photos.

 Here is a quick camera video.  The waterfall-like sound in the background is the torrential rain!:

My kids came in the other night begging for my camera to take a picture.  They had went over to one of the areas close to where they originally found our tadpole eggs and this is what they saw (click on the image and hit full size):

Yes, there was hundreds maybe thousands of them!!!  Toads anyone???

Now of course they also noticed lots of them washed up on the mud and dried out too, so we discussed that's why they have to lay so many eggs, so many don't make it.   And as a funny side note, my dear daughter got herself stuck in about 2 feet of mud while she was over there, and Dad had to come rescue her!

Our little toad tadpoles are still growing like crazy!  We can now see the little gills on the sides of their bodies that will later be feet.

Here you can see their size in comparison to a dime.

I just checked out a great book from the library:

Toad by the Road, by J. Ryder

~ A Year in the Life of These Amazing Amphibians

It put the life cycle of a toad through the four seasons into beautiful and sometimes funny poetry verse, giving facts at the bottom of the pages.  Great!

For all my posts on our toad eggs and tadpoles click Amphibian Study.

I am simply in awe at how fast these tadpoles are growing!  It literally seems you turn your head for a moment and look back and they are bigger!  We have now moved them into two containers.  I know this will only last so long and we'll probably end up taking some of the tadpoles back to their outside home and keep just a handful.  Hannah and I attempted to count them, and we think there is somewhere between 50-60 tadpoles!!!  Ok, so we have too many!  I was kinda thinking less of them would live!  I'm just trying to imagine 50 toads hopping around in here....YIKES!

Here is a closer up photo (you can click on it and hit full size):

Come on, admit it, they're cute, right?!! 

Their little bodies are really starting to pudge out.  I am so excited about us being able to watch the process of them starting as something that looks like a string of black pearls, go to something that looks like little black specks, and in the end turning into toads!  How cool is God's creation?!

Here is a video I took with my camera.  I created a little miniature earthquake to get them moving around.

All of our toad tadpoles babies have hatched!  And as far as I can tell most of them seem to be alive and well.  We've now moved them into a new container.  And even in the last day, I have seen them growing.  Amazing how fast they grow!  We have LOTS of them for sure.  I think it won't be long before we'll have to switch them to an even larger container.  They definitely like the boiled lettuce and are enjoying little bites from other natural things we have put in there that we collected from our creek.  You can click on the following picture and hit "full size" to see them closer.

Things we've been doing for toad school:

  NATURE JOURNALING of Frog and Toad Life Cycle

Hannah's Journal Entry

Alex's Journal Entry

Venn Diagrams - Comparing the Toad and Frog

- And we read a short but very informative story on Frogs and Toads; in which we learned lots of new stuff including that frogs are very good swimmers while toads aren't and prefer more to be on ground (frogs have very long legs versus toad's shorter pudgier legs)!

The above diagram and the frog/toad story were taken from the Complete Book of Animals.

Today we are headed with our school group to the butterfly show at the Krohn Conservatory and afterwards the Cincinnati Art Museum!  FULL AND FUN DAY!  I'll post photos.