Swordwhale Walking: illustration, webcomic, stories, photojourneys, videos
  • launch here
    • what I do and how much I charge
    • tales of the Earth Life Foundation
    • American lotus
  • art & stories
    • black horses
    • Sea Ponies of Chincoteague
    • Just Animals
    • playing with water
    • Tradigital illustration
    • environmental education >
      • Christmas Magic Mural 2020
      • animal alphabet and counting murals
      • Assateague ponies
      • the salamander room
      • more touch room ocean
      • more: touch room forest
      • wetland
      • wetland art
      • greenleaf
      • reptile week murals: Nixon Park
    • just animals: photography
    • Tales of the E.L.F. >
      • That Darn Elf, a musing or two
      • cast and crew
      • I dreamed of black horses
      • fanfiction: If Wishes Were Elves...
      • Following Raven
      • The Merrow's Cap >
        • Merrows Cap credits
      • Manannan's Horses
      • fandom >
        • Radagast's Rabbit Ride
        • the Lone Ranger >
          • LOLs and Trolls
          • but wait, there's Moore, and Silverheels
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        • tales of Middle Earth >
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            • Im-LOL-dris
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            • well, that coulda' been worse
        • Sherlocked
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  • mermaid tales
    • Gramma Swordwhale's Mermaid Blog >
      • how to mermaid
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      • my life as a mermaid
    • privateers and pumpkins and ponies oh my!
    • stupid gravity (the adventures of a mermaid on Eastern Neck Is.) >
      • stupid gravity credits
    • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass >
      • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass: credits
    • Stupid Gravity: Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy Augh! >
      • Misty Stormy credits
    • Stupid Gravity: the search for mermaids
    • mermaids, Moana and Maui, beached on Christmas Eve
    • horseshoe crabs forever
    • stupid gravity: hot hot hot >
      • hot hot hot credits
  • Chincoteague
    • A Beginner's Guide to the islands
    • back to the islands 2021 >
      • Ponies 2021
    • identify that pony
    • chincoteague pony art
    • Fall Roundup Oct 2019
    • Chincoteague 2019
    • pookas pumpkins and swamp ponies
    • Chincoteague Carousel
    • Chincoteague November 2018
    • the 3rd Sea Voyage of Makenuk's Fin
    • wild horses and kayaks 2017
    • wild ponies in camp
    • North Beach
    • on island time
    • saltwater cowboys
    • Chincoteague
    • Christmas by the Sea
    • island ponies
    • Ace and Unci revolt
    • beached
    • running water in between
    • Assateague Light
    • the Haunted Lagoon
  • crafty stuff
    • customizing riders and other characters
    • Wonder Horse repaint
    • Rich Toy hobby horse rehab
    • photo your toys >
      • how to photograph Breyers in the wild
      • welcome to Hawk Circle: telling stories with model horse photography >
        • more Hawk Circle
        • take your models to the beach
      • Lokigator and Throg's Epic Adventure
      • Sam and Bucky's Excellent Adventure
      • Mando and Grogu
      • paint and wet snow pants
      • Legolas and Hwin, snow
      • derps (or how not to photograph Breyers and others)
      • wild Breyers >
        • printable prints and downloads
        • water horses
        • beach Breyers
        • Lotus Legolas and Arod
        • teeny tiny Breyers
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        • Black Horses
      • educational display
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      • North beached
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      • beach party
      • advenatureData
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      • Otterlock and Hedgejawn >
        • Hounded in Baskerville
      • how to photograph your dragon
    • ModPodge rules
    • paint pours
    • flour salt clay
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    • rock it: paint rocks and use or lose them
    • faerie gardens >
      • more faerie gardens
      • faerie festival at Spoutwood Farm
    • sea this tutu (and make)
    • I found Dory
    • knit me a mermaid, or chicken, or Hei Hei
    • sea treasures
    • sea glass
    • sea horses
    • rehabbing horse epic fail >
      • do you wanna build a snow pony?
      • do you wanna build a sand pony?
      • Barbie horse gets a makeover
    • mermaid saddles
    • Yule Laugh, Yule Cry... >
      • a Brandywine Christmas
    • Uncle Bob's Toys >
      • Uncle Bob's Toys 2016
      • more: Uncle Bob's Crafts
      • the Adventures of Mortimer
  • adventures
    • Go Play Outside
    • Nature Deficit Disorder
    • I heart Nature
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    • mushing 101 >
      • dogs on wheels >
        • Autumn Run on Wheels
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      • Schipperke doo dah >
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      • First Horse: Saraf
      • the Wild Black Mare
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      • Yataalii
    • Planet Water >
      • Planet fish tank
      • planet toadpool
      • Planet Pond
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      • Planet Water Bird >
        • Planet Water Bird: gulls
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      • planet amphibian
    • kayak! >
      • blue boat home
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      • the Susquehanna River >
        • the Rock Garden >
          • return to the Rock Garden
        • Conewago Dreamin'
        • the Conejehola Flats
        • Thunderbird Island (petroglyphs on the Susquehanna)
        • to the White Lady and Beyond
      • Calvert Cliffs fossils
      • Sassafras River Lotus Paddle >
        • Return to the Sassafras
        • sassafras river 2015
        • sassafras paddle 20160814
        • Sassafras River 2017
        • Sassafras river 2018
      • Eastern Neck Island >
        • winter marsh, winter beach
        • Eastern Neck Island: under the supermoon
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      • Pinchot Park
      • Lake Marburg >
        • where are the manatees?
        • ...and the dolphins???
        • macros and SAVs
        • Lake Marburg 2018
        • how to be a kayaking Gramma
    • beached
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      • Gourd of the Rings
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    • longship company >
      • December sail
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      • Sailing 101
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      • downrigging 2010 >
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        • downrigging 2018: pink tardis
        • Downrigging 2019
      • privateer weekend
    • horseshoe crabs and red knots >
      • horseshoe crab spawn 2021
      • slaughter beach
      • horseshoe crabs and semipalmated sandpipers 2019
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      • beached
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        • Watching Whales...again
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      • baltimore aquarium
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    • The Adventures of the Good Ship Fearaf
    • the incredibly dead blog page
  • art class
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    • Santa, You're Doomed
    • (drawing) horses 101 >
      • horse color 101
      • gaits
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      • tack
      • Draw: a horse
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    • mural: how to >
      • Gabriel's Whale
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      • drawing mural 2
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      • watershed mural
    • crayons and colored pencils
    • palettes
  • wait wait! let me get the camera!
  • who perpetrated all this???
    • swordbroad

planet toadpool

My cousin has a small water garden pond and two boys who like to climb rocks and fish and stuff.

Which is how I ended up raising tadpoles. 

I also have a large "vernal pool" that appears in mud season (spring to all you folks without livestock) in the horse pasture. I do not have a large water source nearby, so my amphibians are limited to toads which are more terrestrial than frogs. They lay eggs in the puddle, which rapidly vanishes, then the birds go "hey, look at the banquet!"

Until I scooped out most of the tadpoles and stuck them in the lotus pot.

Picture
In addition to the shady lotus (and the pot is partly shaded by a bush, it reduces water temps and algae), there is SAV ("oxygenators" at the plant store, it looks like the weeds that come up on my paddle blade in shallow lakes), or Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, and some volunteer duckweed (the little floaty stuff on the surface) and algae (diminished by the shadyness). Tadpoles are largely vegetarian, and will eat the algae.

In several pools, snails appeared, along with teeny tiny bugs that swarm and are smaller than a pinhead. Mosquito larvae are longish, and I have dunks to destroy those. Perhaps the damselfly nymphs will eat the bugs.

I have arrowroot in pots, and some growing from over-wintered tubers that I just stuck in the sand at the bottom of the pools. Water hyacinth floats and provides cover for tadpoles (or fish), it does not over winter well, but is cheap to buy in spring, and grows fast. Duckweed and algae just show up as well as some tiny bugs. Mosquito dunks keep out the mosquito larvae without damaging anything else. Some of the pools are shaded to cut down on water temp and algae. I tossed some toad eggs into the lotus pot, the rubber tub, and one kiddie pool. Some kinds of plastic are toxic to fish, so kiddie pools may not work. Or will they? Be sure to have ramps, islands and ladders for not only the amphibians to crawl out (frogs are better leapers and swimmers than toads) but for the odd bird or small mammal that falls in. 
other visitors and residents
Toad eggs...
tadpoles
Below: two different visitors to the garden...
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