Officially today marks the end of the first month of 2023 spring. Spring first month’s weather defines Hoosier Spring. Sun, snow, ice, showers, hail, cloudy, thunder and lightning, wind shear, flood, advisories to warnings, freezing rain, wind-chill, well, everything under the sun and under the clouds with each day a mix of the spring witch’s caldron. Everything but “eye of newt and toe of frog.”
Spring critters toss a tad more into the spring caldron. Emergent chipmunks, bees and flies, worms, gnat swarms, and the oft-overlooked tad more of all tossed into the mix, the tadpole. Most arrive in March but often go unseen until April’s thirty days hence.
Angelkeep spotted Angelpond’s 2023 abundance of tadpoles well past spring’s inaugural. At the point first observed they had already developed to a size of more than just a pool of wiggly black spots. When a swarm of tadpoles hover at the shore, they appear like a boiling pot of black coffee. Constant movement defies even focusing on the mass of bumper-car activity. Imagine a pot of dark chocolate pudding boiling, yet each creature softer than tapioca.
Once spring ambiance included the songs of the tree frogs, you could rest assured the frog eggs of Angelpond had hatched to tadpoles, or pollywogs if you prefer. It took 2-3 weeks to go from egg to tadpole. At 6-9 weeks the first legs appeared. Given the time frames, Angelkeep’s tadpoles of 2023 had probably started life as eggs the week or two prior to spring’s official day.
Angelkeep observations missed that stage, but found them darting around, over, under, and between, dead dried leaf muck seeking algae for substance to begin to grow the legs that had not yet appeared. Tadpoles appeared a lot like a maple tree seed. The pre-leg portion of a tadpole’s life included this observed phase 2 when the tail appeared as a transparent fin. When legs did begin to develop where the body met the “fin,” only two appeared, these eventually becoming the larger hind legs. These did in time grow large enough for humans to enjoy eating.
Angelkeep has enjoyed frog legs twice, once via a restaurant, the other home fried. Both, as the saying goes, “tastes like chicken.” What was a bit unnerving to the novice frog leg fry-master was the fact that the amputated frog legs actually moved and reacted, and kicked up a storm, while sizzling away in the butter of the fry pan. It required a bit of courage and fortitude to fry your own frog meal. French diners loved them as “Cuisses de grenouille,” a cuisine delicacy, but also the cause of the world-war years’ derogatory term slanging French soldiers as “Frogs.”
The French term was pronounced Gruh-Noo-EE. If a local waitress asked if you’d care for the “cook’s special” of frog legs, the correct response would be “Gross-Noo-EEK.”
While those delicious hind frog legs are growing on the tadpole, the forelegs begin in a pouch internally. Once they emerge, the tadpole sometimes is called a froglet, looking a lot like a frog but yet with the large flat fin-like tail. The tail never drops off, but rather it shrinks back into the body to disappear for the frog stage. Another major change at the end of a tadpole’s life included the change from vegetarian to carnivore. From a total algae and plant-based diet, the tadpole metamorphoses into a bug-devouring connoisseur.
For those, like human habitants of Angelkeep, who love a good mixed grill of meats, the life of the frog can be taken as a sign that salad and veg are to be but served as a side, or preliminary, to every main course of sustenance, as destined by the natural evolution of pollywog.
It took 3-4 months for a frog to use its metamorphism to transform from egg, to tadpole, to frog, and at that point sing for a mate to begin the process anew. Females chose between the males depending on how well they croak, or sing. Their ribbiting love chants across Angelpond became part of Angelkeep’s magnificent musical orchestra of nature.
Angelpond grew natural white noise.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
