Tadpoles: Catching, Raising, and Observing Metamorphosis

Think back to your childhood and recall some of your happiest moments. What were you doing? Where were you? Who were you with (if anyone)? Last evening, my family was out on a late evening walk to go look at the fireflies that grace us with their diamond-like sparkling at dusk on these warm summer nights. The wetlands near our house seem almost magical with the thousands of fireflies that surround us as we stroll down the path. The sight of the twinkling fireflies always inspires my daughter to break out in her sweet, made-up songs while the rest of us listen, smile, and walk quietly beside her. As we made our way back home, we all started to talk about what makes us happy (I guess the fireflies inspired us). All of our answers contained one commonality: being outside. Happiness for me is hiking, spending time at the cabin, and gardening; my husband said playing soccer, fishing, and camping; my daughter piped in with spending time with the chickens; and my son said exploring or treasure hunting. Now, my son doesn’t go treasure hunting for items like money, jewelry, etc., he, for the most part, hunts for natural treasures. Like tadpoles! Catching Tadpoles Late in the spring, when the edges of the lakes or creeks begin to warm up from the sun, tadpoles start to emerge from their eggs and swarm the shallow waters. This year my son had his trusty sidekick (my daughter) join him in his treasure hunt for tadpoles. The two amigos collected the supplies needed for the hunting expedition and set out on their tadpole hunt. Supplies needed for tadpole hunting: bucket minnow net (using hands works too) With feet sloshing in and out of the shallow, warm water, my son and daughter slowly and carefully tiptoed through the marshy edge of the lake. Within minutes I hear: “Oh my gosh! There are millions of tadpoles in here! Mom, you have got to come and see this!” I could read the excitement on my kids’ faces as they scooped up tadpoles and plopped them in the bucket. My son also pulled out some type of aquatic grass to add to the bucket, not only to give the tadpoles shade if they needed it, but to give them food and oxygen too. After collecting quite a few tadpoles, we brought the bucket home and constructed a nice home for our tadpoles to grow in. Building A Make-shift Tadpole Pond A tadpole home needs: Fresh water from a lake, pond, or creek (tap water has too many chemicals for tadpoles to live in). A large, shallow container (we use an old saucer sled). Rocks or other items that break the surface of the water (when the tadpoles morph into frogs or toads, they need a way to get out of the water and breath air). Food such as algae, natural organic matter that has decomposed on the floor of the lake, and other aquatic vegetation such as duckweed (most of these things can be found in the environment you found the tadpoles living in). Observation After bringing the tadpoles home, my children decided to explore the tadpole water as they added the tadpoles to their make-shift pond. For hours, the two of them sat exploring the creatures in the water with their net. Every new organism was put in a separate clear container for observation. They found, snails, clams, minnows, tiny water bugs the size of a deer tick, and a fresh water shrimp! We have had the tadpoles in their pond for over a month now. According the Minnesota DNR, Minnesota frog and toad species can take a little less than two months and up to two years to make the metamorphosis from tadpole to adult frog or toad. Within the past month most of our tadpoles have begun to grow their legs and arms, and some have morphed from the aquatic vegetarian with tails and gills, to omnivorous toadlets (that eat insects) with limbs and lungs. The toads you see above still need to develop their tough bumpy skin, and at this stage, they are smaller than my pinky fingernail. How is the rest of the pond life fairing? The duckweed in our make-shift pond has at least tripled in number, the aquatic grass plant is still healthy, and the shrimp, minnows, snails, and other aquatic species are alive and well. We have ourselves a healthy microcosm we get to observe each and every day. What a fun and interesting learning tool! Microcosms are a self-contained model of something that is much bigger in size. Our microcosm is a pond, complete with tadpoles, shrimp, minnows, aquatic plants, snails, and mud. We’ve also had rain that continues to fill our pond with natural water a few times per week. This year, our pond has been completely self-sustaining.  After setting up the pond, we’ve had to put no work into it. The only work we do is to sit and gratefully observe. Embark On A Treasure Hunt For Tadpoles Seeing the complete metamorphosis from tadpole to toad has been so much fun for our whole family. Once the last toad leaves our pond, we will return the water and the rest of the pond inhabitants back into the lake. I urge you to go outside on a treasure hunt of your own in search of tadpoles. Then you can enjoy a summer full of exploration, transformation, learning, and excitement by the side of your own little pond.

Sweet Clover, Summer Memories, and a Wildflower Bouquet

As the kids and I took a walk down our road to the lake, the intoxicating smell of sweet clover, vanilla mixed with fresh-cut hay, permeated the air. Late June in Minnesota is when the summer wildflowers awaken and adorn the sides of the roads, prairies, and edges of our 10,000+ lakes. On this particular day, my daughter started collecting wildflowers on the side of the road as we walked toward the lake. “Mom, I’m going to make you the most beautiful wildflower bouquet today.” As my daughter waded through the tall grass and wildflowers, she gathered: Black-eyed Susans, Prairie Fleabane, Tufted Vetch, Virginia Waterleaf, Yellow and White Sweet Clover, Ox-eye Daisies, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Red Clover. Once we arrived at the lake, my son picked an exquisite American White Water Lily, also known as the Fragrant Water Lily, to add to the bouquet. Before long we had a beautiful wildflower bouquet of all different colors, textures, and scents waiting to adorn our kitchen table. My family has been picking wildflowers along the roadside on our walks for year. One thing that always comes to mind, when reminiscing of these ventures, is the smell of sweet clover. In fact, my children have learned to identify sweet clover when it emerges from the soil in the early spring. First, there is excitement at finding the plant itself, but then a serious race ensues to see who can pick and smell the first sweet clover leaves of the year. There is nothing like the smell of sweet clover, especially on a warm summer day like today. Years ago, as a teenager, I remember helping my boyfriend (who is now my husband) with his summer lawn mowing jobs. There was this particular spot in a yard that smelled especially sweet every time we would mow. Determined to identify the plant,  I would stop and search high and low for the plant that smelled so sweet. Finally I found a plant that appeared to be a type of clover (three finely-toothed leaflets). After my job, I remember going home and telling my mother about this clover plant that had the most wonderful smell. She said “Oh, sweet clover! That was your great-grandpa’s favorite smell as well.” Little did my mother know, that my great-grandfather had actually written a journal entry about his memories of clover. What I remember was that mother laid me in the shade at the edge of the field and cocked the hay as my father raked it. The smell of the Red Clover drying and the humming of the bees comes back vividly now as I write of this happening. ~Roy Falk My mother’s aunt (who typed up my great-grandfather, Roy Falk’s, journals) noted how incredible my great-grandfather’s memory must have been to remember incidents that happened before he could even sit up on his own. I was also surprised, but I know it’s not unheard of. In fact, I remember one incident that happened when I was a baby in a walker. I was at a family friend’s house, and as I was wheeling around, the dog who lived at that house accidentally pushed me down the stairs in my walker. I was amazingly unharmed, but the memory of tumbling down those stairs and being terrified is still sharp in my mind. The sweet smell of the Red Clover and the buzzing of the bees must have had quite an impact on Great-Grandpa for him to recall this memory so well. After reading Great-Grandpa’s journal entry, I was interested to see if there was a purpose of the clover being in the hay field. According the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), clover was brought over to the United States from Europe in the 1600’s. It was used as a forage crop (to feed livestock) and as a cover crop (where it is used to keep weeds down and enrich the soil). Clover plants have very long tap roots that extend several feet below the top soil. This tap root brings nutrients such as nitrogen up to the top soil, nourishing nearby shallow-rooted plants. I wish I could have been sitting next to the field with Great-Grandpa, listening to the bees and smelling the hay and clover as it dried in the fields. As I’m writing this, my husband and children are imploring me to accompany them on our daily walk. I think I’m ready to go out and smell the sweet clover again after sharing this story. I urge you to make your way outside and embark on a journey to look for some summer wildflowers. You may just come home with a beautiful bouquet, and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch the scent of vanilla and fresh-cut hay drifting the air.      

Birding: Let a Child Guide You

Have you ever been on a walk with a child and noted that they find coins on the ground quite often (coins that you passed right by without seeing), or that children can easily spot a bird far off in the distance, or that they notice a line of ants marching across the path carrying chewed pieces of leaves right before you would have stepped on them? Last winter my family and I took a good, long road trip from Minnesota all the way down to Grand Isle, Louisiana to escape the MN cold, but more importantly, to explore areas we’ve never been. How refreshing to see all the sights on our trip through the eyes of my children. Their excitement was contagious! Arriving at the ocean felt like seeing it for the first time myself. My kids found heaps of shells, spotted the beautiful Man O’ War, felt the push of the ocean waves as they swam toward shore, and discovered that the many quarter-sized holes in the sand were home to a type of hairy land crab. My children still get excited to tell of the treasures they unearthed on their trip. Anyhow, when we returned home from our explorations, my father-in-law had left us a section of The Wall Street Journal on our kitchen counter with a specific article circled for us to read. The article was titled, When Children Beat Adults at Seeing the World, and was written by Alison Gopnik, an American professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. In the article, Alison discusses how adults are better at focusing their attention and learning as a result, but children are better at learning about anything unattended. In other words, adults only seem to focus on objects, ideas, etc. that are at the center of their attention, whereas children also learn about and attend to things that are happening in the background. So, the next time you think a child is not paying attention (watching a bird find worms outside the school window, staring at a spider building a web during homework, or chasing a leaf during soccer practice), perhaps that child is really paying attention to more than you know, exploring more, and learning much more than you think. Perhaps this would be a good time to ask that child what he or she was looking at or thinking about. You may just learn something new too! How about testing out this idea by bringing a child birding with you? Birding is a great way to get outdoors, get into nature, and it doesn’t have to cost you a penny. According to the Audubon site, the U.S. is home to 47 million birders. If you think about it, birding is really a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt that you can partake in anywhere in the world and can last a lifetime. There are really only two things you need to do to begin birding: Find a green space or water source. Go on a walk. That’s it! So very simple. These are other things that may make your birding experience more fruitful: Bring along a pair of binoculars. Go to the library and rent a birding field guide. Use a checklist or nature journal to record your sightings. Download a free app for phones like the Audubon Bird Guide App. This particular app has data on 821 species of birds, more than 8,200 photos, and eight hours of bird sounds. Do a little research prior to your outing to see which birds you should be looking for at that particular time of year. Bring a child along. I’m not much for carrying anything cumbersome on my hikes, so I don’t ever take binoculars, a field guide, or a journal, but I do have my children right beside me, and they are, in my opinion, the best birding resource. They sure spot birds, insects, mushrooms, and anything else that is different or exciting with little effort. Last weekend, a few members of my family went out on our typical nature walk up at the cabin. When we returned, we noticed that the others who had stayed behind were intently looking up into the old basswood tree. The kids ran down to explore, and they excitedly came running back yelling “A mama hummingbird has a nest up in the tree by the deck!” We’ve never observed a hummingbird nest here in Minnesota. This nest just happened to be about 10 feet from the deck railing. The nest itself was not much larger than a silver dollar, and after closer inspection of the pictures I took with the camera, the nest almost seemed to glitter in green in black. We know that hummingbirds use spider webs to tie twigs and plant material together, which also makes the nests soft and stretchy. This particular hummingbird used tiny little pieces of sage-green lichen to weave into the silky-soft spider webs, along with a sparkly black substance, which we couldn’t identify. The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird seemed to perch regally in her magnificent nest. Definitely a sight to behold. I do have to note that my mother was the one to spot the sweet ruby-throated hummingbird in her nest. We have often teased my mother, in good nature, about being one of the kids. Mom has always taken this as a compliment, and I’ve always appreciated her easy-going, fun-loving personality. “You’re only as old as you feel!” Perhaps she has learned the trick to not only learning by focusing, but learning by exploring too. Thanks to this, we have been treated to watching Miss Ruby tend to her nest the last couple of weeks. I hope we’ll get to catch a glimpse of the tiny babies when they emerge from the tiny, navy bean-sized eggs. The next time you head out for a walk, bring your child, grandchild, or a friend with their child with you to see how many different birds you can spot

Get Outside And Get Into Nature: Your Mind and Body Will Thank You

My son asked me last weekend, as we were all helping to put the dock in the lake up at the family cabin, “Mom, why does Brook [our dog], love being at the cabin so much?” I answered, “Well, I imagine she loves the cabin for many of the same reasons we love being here. The extended family comes up to visit [including all of the pups], everyone is always happy and relaxed, we spend our evenings fishing, roasting marshmallows over the fire, and playing games on the deck, we share great food, and we take long walks down the dirt road and through the woods.” Do you notice a common denominator here? Yes, most of our time is spent outside. When I think about our typical day at the cabin, we usually spend no more than two hours inside. An hour for breakfast and an hour or so before bed to watch the news and have a snack. The rest of the day we play outside, we talk outside, we eat outside, and we relax outside. Happiness! This is what we feel at the cabin. This is what we feel when we are outside. Unfortunately, many people aren’t getting outside these days. In fact, according the National Wildlife Federation, children are spending half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago.  Today, children go from school to after-school activities or homework and adults go from working all day to taking care of their house/children. Increasing screen time takes away from potential outdoor time, limited green spaces in cities and suburbs can make it difficult for people to find space to enjoy the outdoors, and people are not making outdoor-time a priority in their busy lives. In an astounding new (2016) study by Persil, more than 12,000 parents of 5 to 12-year old children in 10 countries around the world (US, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, UK, US, and Vietnam) were surveyed and researchers found that children, on average, spend an hour or less of their day outside. Prisoners are allowed two hours of outdoor time each day. Our children are spending less time outside than prisoners! Persil put together an impactful video interviewing inmates about their feelings toward their outdoor time. Then, the video captured the inmates’ reactions when the interviewer told them that children around the world are getting an hour of outdoor time per day. See the two-minute video here: Free the Kids Limited outdoor time can have major consequences on not only physical health, but mental and emotional health as well. According to the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC), one in three adults and one in six children have obesity. Leading a sedentary lifestyle (too many hours sitting in school or daycare centers, no unstructured play time, too much screen time on TV, computers, and smartphones, etc.) is one of the main causes of obesity. Also, the CDC reports that the percentage of children with an ADHD diagnosis has continued to increase from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007 and to 11.0%  in 2011. Similarly, a study by Mantejano et al. found that ADHD diagnoses in adults increased more than three-fold between 2002 and 2007. Is it a coincidence that as human beings decrease the time they spend outside, physical and mental illnesses increase? Research shows that many illnesses such as obesity and ADHD can be controlled and sometimes eradicated by one simple prescription, a free prescription: nature.  Research shows that being outside: Boosts overall health5, 6, 10, 14 Decreases anxiety and depression8 Increases cognitive functioning4, 5 Increases creativity5 Increases happiness5 Increases self-awareness5 Increases self-esteem3, 5, 13 Increases the ability to focus, even in children with ADHD4, 5, 9, 13, 14 Increases energy levels11 Increases physical activity levels and decreases obesity levels5 Improves mood1, 2, 3, 14 Improves sleep12 Lowers blood pressure levels10 Is necessary for brain development7 Reduces stress1, 2, 3, 5, 14 Reduces aggression5, 14 Back to the cabin.  The day the family went up to put the dock in the lake, my husband, my mother, my children, my nephew, Brook (our dog), and I went on a two-hour walk down the dirt road and through the woods. A two-hour walk that would normally take 20 minutes had we continued walking on the road. We collected Lake Superior agates on the dirt road, and we identified spring wild flowers poking up through the crispy leaves that had fallen last fall on the forest floor. My son found a fungi we had never observed before called Devil’s Urn (a cup-shaped black fungi that is surprisingly edible), the whole family found groves of ramps (a wild onion), and collected the leaves to bring home to prepare with dinner. The kids explored the hills and valleys throughout the woods, finding treasures like glass bottles, old flower pots, and frogs in shallow, muddy puddles.  Meanwhile, the adults found an old log to sit on to discuss how wonderful it is to see the kids lost in nature. The kids were running, hopping, jumping, climbing, learning, exploring, and chatting away, oblivious to the fact that we were watching them with appreciation. Happiness all around. Make the time to get outside and get into nature. Your body and mind will thank you. Visit Get Outside often for new ideas on how to get outside and get into nature! References: Akers, A., Barton, J., Cossey, R., Gainsford, P., Griffin, M., Mikleright, D. (2012). Visual Color Perception in Green Exercise: Positive Effects on Mood and Perceived Exertion. Environmental Science and Technology. 46(16):8661-8666. Aspinall, P., Mavros, P., Coyne, R., Roe, J. (2012). The urban brain: analyzing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG. British Journal of Sports Medicine. Barton, J., Pretty, J. (2010). What is the Best Dose of Nature and Green Exercise for Improving Mental Health? A Multi-Study Analysis. Environmental Science and Technology. 44: 3947-3955. Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., Kaplan, Stephen. (2008). The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature. Psychological Science. 19: 1207-1212. Children and Nature Network. (2012). Health Benefits to Children from contact with the Outdoor & Nature. 46