For years now, I have been collecting frog eggs to bring to some of the teachers, so their kids can watch tadpoles grow into frogs. This year, as every year, I told myself this will be the last year that I do this. I have long been torn between wanting to share this wonder of nature with children, and feeling remorse for removing these frogs from their natural home. Not to mention the sense of obligation I feel to check on the tadpoles/frogs in each classroom. Do they need food? Is their water OK?

I do try to release the frogs back where I collected them as eggs.



These are Pacific Tree Frogs, a very common species in the West, but I feel that all frogs are in danger from pollution, climate change, and habitat loss. I get the impression, from the way they regularly mow down all the plants along the creek at my local park, that the park management holds no special feelings for the frogs or other aquatic life. But yesterday, when I released my last few frogs for this spring, I was heartened to see that for whatever reason be it budget cuts or scheduling issues, the plant life is abundant in the creek, and it looks like Froggie Paradise.




There he goes, seeming to contemplate his future.  Good luck, little guy ♥

You can look back here at a "tadpole diary" I posted several years ago.