We visited Mum over Easter and as we were discussing which plant nurseries to visit, she announced “then we can rescue the tadpoles”.

huge cloud of frogspawn had been laid in a large puddle in the nearby woods. Against the odds the tadpoles had hatched but in all this dry weather the large puddle was evaporating fast…

Mum is the least pretentious person I know but the only vessel big enough for the task was a beautiful vintage Kilner jar.  These tadpoles were going to be rescued in style.

The big puddle had been reduced to a group of small puddles only inches deep with a thick layer of silt at the bottom.  The taddies were lethargic and were easy to scoop into the jar which we had filled with pond water from home.  It was very murky initially but soon cleared.

I know it is frowned upon removing wildlife from the wild because it upsets the eco-system and you can spread disease.  However these tadpoles were going to be dead in a few days and to me their survival overrode the other considerations.

We were also disappointed that our new pond built last year didn’t attract any mating frogs this spring.  We had a couple of juvenile frogs visit over the summer but nothing since.  I hoped that an injection of tadpoles may boost our local population.

The tadpoles were securely wrapped up in their jar ready for the two hour journey back to Hampshire.  I am pleased to say they survived and were very frisky this morning when I checked on them.  I had tried not to let their water get too warm and had kept them out of the sun.  I submerged the jar in the pond water to acclimatise the temperature for a few hours before letting them take the plunge!

Good luck little taddies!