The Toadlet Season is Over!

All the toadlets in the pond are dead!

On Monday afternoon I noticed that I didn't see any toadlets, toadpoles, polliwogs... none of the batch II or III Woodhouse's Toads hatchling.  As noted in my July 2nd post I haven't see any batch I toadlets either.

On Wednesday afternoon my granddaughter and I started searching in earnest for any toadlet.  We found one laying on some string algae.  Confirmed it was a toadlet and was dead by netting the poor creature.

We then moved our search to the skimmer pond.  Just a few days ago there were many hundreds of the little guys scarfing the algae from the walls of the pond.  I took the net and started to stir the water in the pond.  Soon a few little toadlet bodies were brought to the surface by the current.  I netted a dozen or so.  All dead.

Later my granddaughter saw a couple of the batch I toadlets in the Bio-falls.  These were also dead.  I took one out to get a picture. 

The batch I guys were pretty big.  I would estimate a little over 1 inch in length.  As you can see in the pictures their legs (gams) were quite developed.  I was surprised their tails were still so long. 

We only found 4 of the batch I toadlets so I would like to think these might be late bloomers, so to speak, and their sibling have actually moved out of the pond. 

Besides the dead toadlets we also noted a number of dead snails.

We don't know what caused this pond catastrophe.  In our discussions we talked about the possibility of the pond oxygen being depleted but we don't know what would cause that to happen.  Possibly something to do with water temperature and algae?  We just don't know.

We have considered that possibly something from all the fireworks on the 4th may have settled into the pond.  We don't think that likely but I suppose possible.

We have also thought about someone maybe spraying a tree, bushes or weeds and the poison getting into the pond.  This seems more likely to me. 

We don't know if this somehow ties in with Joe's disappearance.  There is a whole lot we don't know.  But Joe has been gone for a long time and these toadlets died just a couple of days ago.

Answers to this mystery I don't expect to find.

With feelings of melancholy we close the story on this years toadlets.