Leah, Nathan, and I went to Mercer Slough tonight for a guided tour of the wetlands and forest near Lake Washington. We joined a small group of other 5- to 8-year olds for a hike in the dark. They made us turn off our flashlights, though once our eyes adjusted we could see pretty well. The guides were a fun bunch, who dressed up in various costumes to explain about night-time creatures like bats, coyotes, moths, and spiders. My favorite: owl droppings. Did you know that after an owl swallows a mouse he later spits up the fur? It falls to the ground in a tiny ball that you can find on the forest floor if you look.
We also saw a tadpole man, and we asked him about the fate of our own tadpole at home. We bought two of them earlier this year, one of which dutifully turned into a frog a month or so later. But the other one is still a tadpole ten months later! What gives? The expert naturalists at the center say they’ve never heard of such a thing and can only speculate that our so-called tadpole isn’t.
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