Harsh winter apparently having removed the usual resident (bullfrog tadpole, dragonfly nymph) predators, and late spring delayed the arrival of visitors (ring and garter snakes), these teeming wood frog tadpoles moil about near their empty egg masses in a thin layer of sun-heated water above slightly submerged oak leaves and arising lily pads:
Organized by instinct, chemical signal or simply closest packing, small eddies and patterns emerge,
while their dolphin gray and halfway-between forms, contrasting with the algae-painted husks of their former homes, make patterns of a delicacy to equal any from Pixar or Hubble:
