It Must be March - I Hear Frogs!

It's March - my favorite time of year is starting to creep into the corners of my woods. There is a different smell in March. It's a faintly sweet, earthy smell and when I sense it in early March, I know that Spring is just around the corner. I am never sure exactly which corner so I have to be ever on the lookout for signs. One sign is the daffodils that start to show themselves in various parts of the playground.

Parents built these bottomless planter boxes for along the fence out of cedar fencing boards.

When the daffodils start to show themselves it is time to go to the pond and gather frog eggs which form the foundation of our yearly classroom "Pond Project". We have done this project in our classroom every year for probably the last 6 or 7 years. I throw my muck boots in the car and stop by the drainage pond not far from my house. I put on my boots, open the big gate, slip through and wade out into the icy water. My hands ache from the cold as I gather ping-pong ball sized egg masses. I am the official "frog egg" gatherer for our organization so I must have enough to send to the other teachers that have requested them. This unassuming little wet-weather pond that has provided Pacific Tree frog eggs faithfully throughout the years - until this year. This year there was a chain and a lock on the gate. I live on 5 acres of swamp - finding frog eggs shouldn't be that hard... I convince the better half to go hunting with me & we finally find a pond with eggs... and a few other critters... 

Our Pond Study Center. Three different water habitats because we ended up with three different nymph species that wanted to eat each other! The fourth habitat is for the mature frogs.

This creature was particularly fascinating. He is a Dragonfly nymph. He only eats live prey so the kids named him "The Mean Guy"

We ended up with four of these odd little critters - Salamander nymphs! 

frog eggs

The boys are trying to identify some of the creatures in our pond.