On Thursday, I flushed a huge frog out of the Swiss Chard when I was watering. My guess from his size is that it would be a Bull Frog. I do live near wetlands but seeing a frog this far away from water is rare. Toads used to be common but not frogs. Worried about him, I moved a container of water that I keep, hoping that if the chipmunks are thirsty they will drink water instead of eat on a tomato — don’t ask how that’s working, and topped it off from the hose.
On Friday, when I went out to try to water the chard, again, I heard a splash coming from the vicinity of the waterbowl. Expecting to see Swamp Thang, I looked around for the source and found this sweet young thing, about a third of his size. I also saw some black threads wiggling around in the water and got excited about the possibility of tadpoles. But the timing worried me; how long to go from eggs to tadpoles?
I googled a bit and was becoming more and more convinced that they probably weren’t tadpoles, but mosquito larvae. But that night after work she was suspended in the water, nose and eyes sticking out, along with a number of the small black things. Would she really hang about with mosquito larvae? But the next morning, I didn’t like the way she looked, now resting at the bottom of the container in water that was now pretty yucky. She had turned a dark black, too. I tipped her out to see if she was living and decided to clean out the bowl. By the time I went to work she was back in the clean water and had returned to a more normal froggy color.
So now I have a frog living in my garden bed in less than three cups of water. Finally watering the Swiss Chard, I also flushed out a toad, who seems to be hanging about, so I put down a couple more containers of water that I’m cleaning and filling with the hose when I water the garden.
I think what has happened is that our warm and dry summer has dried out the vernal pools nearby and these wetlands creatures are under preassure to find water.