The Frog Blog

[This is an extra blog, aimed at the younger generation, who badly need things to do right now.. Maybe they will find it fun. It overlaps with my usual blogs, so don’t read both! Please send this on to anyone you know who has small children, the more the merrier.]

This is a Wood Frog. He is about 2″ long, and she is slightly bigger than he is. You can tell it is a Wood Frog because it has a black mask on its face.

They live in the the woods of Maine, in the northeastern United States, all year, but when spring comes, they rush to the nearest tiny pond.

These ponds are so small they have no fish, so the frogs (and their eggs) are safe from being eaten. They swim around, looking for a mate:

And they call out as they swim. What do they say? American frogs say “Ribbit”, right?? But not these frogs. These frogs make a loud noise that sounds exactly like ducks or geese:

Once they find the love of their life, the female lays eggs, that look like bubbles on top of the water. My pond has thousands and thousands of them right now.

If you collect a few, and get a better look, here they are:

Wood frog eggs

Wood frog eggs

Each egg is a little black dot, surrounded by jelly. There are thousands and thousands of them in my pond right now, so it is OK for a grown-up to collect just a few to show you, so long as I look after them carefully, and put the baby frogs back in the same pond that I found the eggs in. Every day, they will get fresh pond water, and lots of daylight.  Each week, I’ll take some more photos, and let you know how they are doing. If all goes well in about 3 weeks they will hatch as TADPOLES, and then they will gradually turn into FROGS.

I’ll keep you posted, and you can send this blog to all your friends. If you have any questions, you can ask me, and I’ll do my best to answer.