Tadpoles swarming

      When we were tench fishing the other week there shoals of tadpoles in the lake gathered into a slowly swirling ball like this one. Sometimes the tadpoles had gathered around water plants and in other places in the pool the pool they were just a wagging, writhing column in the water.
      I have no idea if this is normal tadpole behaviour or a security ploy like safety in numbers to confuse predators because they are not the most mobile or speedy of aquatic creatures and they are an easy meal for a predator needing a rapid protein fix.
      By the time I get to the lake again they will all have disappeared and entered the world of frogs and toads with a different set of predators after them.