The loneliest tadpole

There is only one tadpole left in the Garden of Shaz. Its been on its own for a few weeks now and I cant help thinking how lonely it must be.

About 4 weeks ago it had two companions, both well developed froglets and nearing their time to leave the pond. One of the two froglets had a very under-developed back leg and I didn't think it would make it out of the pond with only three limbs. But it has, its gone and I can only hope that it has survived with its back leg continuing to develop.

I noticed that the last tadpole started to develop its back legs last week. That's a good sign because now it should start to develop its front legs very quickly and then be able to leave. The worry with this tadpole becoming a frog so much later than the rest is that it has a shorter period of time to grow into a strong adult frog before the cold weather arrives.

I've been trying to make the garden frog friendly since the froglets emerged from their ponds. I've not weeded at all to avoid disturbing them and to keep more of the garden shaded. This last month has been very hot so shade has been important to keep them cool. The wide but slug ravished hostas and bushing day lily leaves should provide a dark and cool environment. The day lilies are in bloom now with the first flowering on the 20th July.

I've also made little hiding places with large stones and lumps of mud.  The birds are probably their worse nightmare and I've seen a blackbird darting into the foliage and coming back out with what could have been a little frog in its beak. I cant help lifting a few stones to see if there is a little frog beneath. Sometimes I'm lucky and its great to see the frogs growing larger.

I cant be sure but I think the frogs might be able to adjust their skin colour to suit their surroundings. I found two frogs on either side of one of the ponds. One was under a stone in the grass and was light brown. The other was under lumps of mud in a dark muddy area. This frog was much darker brown. However, I had also noticed a difference in colour as some of the first few were leaving the ponds for the first time. At that time they were mostly living in the pond so there was no difference in surroundings but there was already a difference in the shade of brown. So why would the same family of tadpoles look so different?