magickcanoe.com Blog

On April 12th, I reported on the appearance of this season’s first Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica) eggs in the old drainage ditch (little creek) here at the farm. I’ve been checking up on them daily and have shot a few photos, but there hadn’t been too much change until yesterday. Last evening, I went back to photograph the eggs around sunset because I wanted to try out a new technique to try to get better images. Previously, I’ve been shooting during daylight hours, just trying to block off some of the light reflection with my own shadow. This time, it was dark enough that there was little reflection, and I experimented with a few different flash settings. The results were greatly improved.

As for the eggs, there have been some sudden changes over the past day or so — probably brought on by warmer temperatures. The entire mass of eggs is now floating at the surface rather than being slightly submerged. The previously almost-clear, gelatinous mass with eggs suspended fairly equidistant, has become somewhat opaque — in fact, somewhat whitish looking (see above) and looks stronger and more substantial. Perhaps of greater interest, previously, the eggs just seemed to be floating sort of free-fall in a filmy gel, but now they are taking on a distinctly “individual” appearance. This is best seen in the photo below, where the membranes of the some of the uppermost eggs at the water’s surface, have become quite globular (you can click on either of the photos above and below to see a larger image). I’ll try to post another follow-up on the frog egg development sometime in the next couple of days if there is any substantial change in their appearance.

Tags: Wood Frog, Rana sylvatica, egg development