Fishing for Tadpoles

There's a little creek that occasionally turns into a lake near our house.  One morning this week when it was in full on lake mode we happened to notice this:

There were so many tadpoles David was catching them with his hands to get a better look at them and I promised we would bring daddy back to show him once he got home from work.

Unfortunately for me there must have been some kind of tadpole massacre while we were gone because there was not a tadpole to be seen when we came back after dinner with all of our tadpole catching apparati (I mean really, if David could catch them I'm sure there were any number of more nimble predators who could have gotten to them in our absence).

I finally managed to redeem myself and found a measly two little tadpoles and we brought them home for further study.

I remember catching tadpoles with my grandpa in the creek behind his house as a little girl, but I don't think we ever had one that made it into full fledged frog status....I'm pretty sure the best we ever managed was to watch one grow two legs.

Hopefully we'll have better success with these guys--although I think we may already be down to one tadpole in the bowl unless we have one regular tadpole and one master of disguise.

Luckily (or sadly?) we had an open fish bowl since Howard (aka the fish who lived.......and lived.....and lived) passed away last month after three long years as the most neglected pet in our family--which was mighty impressive considering his beginnings as a party door prize.

We haven't named him yet, but I think he is my favorite found creature that's been brought into our home....not that I didn't enjoy all of the lizards/frogs/giant cockroaches that proceeded him but....well, they were gross and they couldn't metamorphosize sooooo they pretty much have nothing going for them.......