I uploaded my video in HD format, if you have a slow internet connection please watch in youtube.
This is going into the third week of rice planting and the aroma of the young rice plants smell so nice.
These are the little tadpoles that I saw last week, I came prepared this time with my telephoto lens. Tadpoles are young amphibians that live in the water. During the tadpole stage of the amphibian life cycle, most respire by means of autonomous external or internal gills.
They do not usually have arms or legs until the transition to adulthood, and typically have dorsal or fin-like appendages and a tail with which they swim similar to most fish. The one below is maturing and is growing limbs, usually the legs first, then followed by the arms. Lungs develop around the time of leg development, and tadpoles late in development will often be found near the surface of the water, where they breathe air. I saw many at the rice paddy yesterday evening. During the final stages of external metamorphosis, the tadpole’s mouth changes from a small, enclosed mouth at the front of the head to a large mouth the same width as the head. The intestines shorten to make way for the new diet, and most tadpoles are herbivorous, subsisting on algae and plants.
I hope I ID them correctly since some of them look like a Tree frog, especially this one.
The dragonflies are hovering over the paddy, I absolutely love the sight and it’s very relaxing to watch. The Dragonflies possess six legs like any other insect, but most of them can’t walk well. They are some of the fastest insects in the world and they are valuable predators that eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants and many more. I often wonder if there’s any fly flies here at night, or the dragonflies take care of them too.
I don’t see how the dragonflies eat the bumble bees.
The bamboos near the road is spreading to the rice paddy. Bamboos are some of the fastest growing plants in the world. They are capable of growing 100 cm (39 inch) or more per day due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. If they stop planting the rice paddy, I bet the bamboos will take over and this might not be a bad thing.
Nye Noona 
I wonder if you could eat those tadpoles. Don’t you think in laos they would catch them to make mok tadpoles?
Hi salalao, I think they could but I don’t think it sounds very appealing to me now. Mok tiny little fish sounds better. 🙂
to answer your question…. yes!!! people do eat those tadpoles… khon lao refer to it as…”tol huak” or “ee huak”.. typical way to cook it… “mok ee huak” wrap with banana leaf. personally, i never try it and probably will not going to anytime soon.. hahhaha that would be a dish for Andrew Zimmerman to eat if I get to take him to Laos.
You have certainly captured some wonderful shots there Nye… Love the little wannabe tree frog… 🙂
Thanks Brian, they are so tiny and I’m glad I brought my telephoto lens along.
Nice close up photos. I’d love to come across those tiny frogs someday.
And I love the photo of the clovers and bee. Might have to barrow that photo for my next blog post. 😉
cambree, you’re welcome to use the image, I wish I had more time to adjust the background image to make it a little less blurry. The bee moved too fast for me. The first time I saw the tiny frog was at a garden in Raleigh, and I didn’t expect to see this many at the rice paddy. I must have not paid a good attention in the past two years.