Who Is There?

Splash! A big-eyed, bulging bullfrog plops into a pond. This frog’s eardrums are as big as her eyes, but there is secret life in the woods even she cannot hear. It is hidden life that no one can hear. Who is there?

In the trees, in ponds and puddles, and under leaves and soil, eggs are preparing to hatch. Hard eggs, squishy eggs, leathery eggs, big and small eggs are hiding in nooks and crannies.

Each egg has in it everything needed to make a new baby animal. It has the part that will become the hatchling, a layer or two of something to protect it, and food. Secretly, silently . . . the eggs develop.

A big bunch of bullfrog eggs float in the pond. They are tiny black dots with a loose jelly coating. A rainbow trout swims out of the pond into a cool stream. Here the water moves faster. On the gravel at the bottom, she lays hundreds of clear, yellowish eggs. The eggs are soft as butter. They are smaller than the tip of your little finger.

At the edge of the pond, a snapping turtle digs a hole in the sandy soil with her back claws. She drops in two dozen white, leathery eggs that look like table-tennis balls. Carefully she covers them and lumbers away.

In a patch of velvety moss, a black snake, called a racer, leaves her eggs. They are snowy but rough, as if covered with salt. On a leaf nearby, a clump of tiny white balls have been glued on with red cement. These eggs belong to the pale green luna moth.

Birds lay hard-shelled eggs. Some are plain, some are colorful, some speckled or scribbly. The eggs lie hidden in hollow trees, clumps of grass, and in many kinds of nests. Some look like pebbles, so you can’t see them when they are laid on the ground. The eggs of a hummingbird are no bigger than your thumbnail. The eggs of an eagle are as broad as the palm of your hand.

For now, this world remains silent and hidden. Soon, the secret will be out. The food inside these eggs will be used up, and the baby animals will hatch, big and strong enough to live outside of their shells.

So go quietly, gently in the woods—and do not disturb.