Fairy shrimp eggs may wait 20 years or more for the water to reach them. Copepods and fairy shrimp hatch into the freezing water of January, truly an amazing sight. Vernal pools by definition are temporary with no inlet or outlet, so there are no hungry fish or bullfrog tadpoles. This makes them safe places for frogs and salamanders to lay their eggs. Wood frogs and spotted salamanders will lay their eggs no place else, even returning to the same pool year after year.
Wood frogs begin their mating calls while there is snow on the ground and ice in the pools.
Their odd, quacking calls can be heard throughout the Center's woods in late winter and early spring. Wood frog eggs soon appear followed quickly by the eggs of salamanders and tree frogs. Spotted turtles may visit the pool and eat some of the eggs. Surviving eggs turn into tadpoles that grow rapidly on a diet of mosquito larvae, leaves, and other foods. Growth must be fast enough to be completed before the pools dry up.