Frogs

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Frogs

Postby Ponddipperdave on Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:34 pm

The Frogs are back....and so am I.

Happy new pond year everyone!

Dave :D
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Dave here
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Re: Frogs

Postby Tricia on Tue Feb 15, 2011 3:00 pm

I haven't seen or heard any frogs - but there are two splodges of spawn in my pond since Sunday. I'm hoping to see some tadpoles this year as the fish ate all the spawn last year!
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:58 am

It is lovely to see you back Dave. :D There are no frogs here yet, they seem to come in early march or maybe late february depending on the weather. Looking out today at the SNOW I don't think they will be here for a while. We lost a few when the ice came and completely froze our ponds and little buckets that they had taken refuge in. That was sad to see when it thawed.
Tricia what a shame the fish got the lot of spawn. That was the reason I decided to have a small pond as well as the large one so that I could save about half the spawn each year. I thought I would just take some out of the large pond but after the first year I found that the frogs came back and just used the small pond anyway so I didn't need to put any in from the large pond.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:38 pm

Well Sonny has just told me that the frogs ARE back and have been for a week or so. just shows how much I know :D That was a surprise but now it is snowing I don't think they will be coming out again for a while. Is it snowing with you Dave as you are not so far away from us?
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:30 am

Yesterday the frogs emerged and have started mating. I really wanted to go and change the water in the small pond before they came but my Sciatica put paid to that as my back has been so very painful that I haven't been able to do anything since Christmas Eve. I don't want them having their spawn in such stagnant water. Maybe I can add some clean water today. I am absolutely in agony today though and have been walking the floor for 2 and a half hours now waiting for the pain to ease. It will be late this afternoon before I can attempt such a thing, also the pump has clogged up in the big pond so that needs cleaning. I will try to do them both this afternoon but I won't if they have already started laying.
I hope we get lots of frogs this year. Dave you always get hundreds don't you? I don't think I will ever forget the photo you posted of the pond absolutely filled with tadpoles.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:49 am

I managed with the help of The children to clean out the little pond. It was full of decaying leaves and the soil from when I fell in through the ice and tried to stop myself with the planters but they had fallen in after me. :lol:
There was no spawn but there were three couples in already and another few frogs so they stayed at the bottom. I had been worried that some frogs had died in the pond during our ice age and when emptying I got near the bottom and I could see a large dead frogs head bobbing about. Then I pulled out nearby the large body that belonged to the head and to my great relief I realised that it was my bobbing head frog ornament that somehow had found it's way into the pond.The head and body had seperated and it wasn't a large swollen dead frog afterall. :D It gave me quite a fright.
All the snails had died and the tiny fish and a baby frog due to the ice but really it could have been so much worse. The winter has been a terribly hard one here in Yorkshire. Maybe northern frogs are also hardier than their southern counterparts lol. It is lovely to hear them calling. It seems very soothing just like cats purring.
The large pond has quite a lot of frogs so far. Maybe tomorrow I will try counting them.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:58 am

Yesterday I went down to the small pond and there is a lovely clump of spawn in it. A friend came with her 3 year old and he wanted to see the frogs so we went to the little pond and put the net in. It caught about six frogs all in the same scoop along the water so Austin was really excited. He stroked one of them to see what they felt like and I told him that the fat bellied frogs were the mummies ready to have their baby tadpoles. I didn't mention the ones that were bound together :lol:
He has loved coming to our home over the last year or so but they are moving away in a few weeks. He brought me a lovely pot of tete a tetes in a silver pot with a yellow ribbon round it and I gave him a little book as a going away present and a fat ball bird feeder as he got very excited to tell me that he had made a bird feeder of a pine cone that he covered with peanut butter and rolled in seeds. I have very long pinecones in a bowl that I have collected so I gave him a really big one. He is a really lovely little boy and I will miss seeing him and his enthusiasm for the frogs.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:19 am

Lots of spawn in the small pond and only one tiny clump so far in the large pond but today the pond has been very busy with lots of new arrivals so I expect quite a lot in the morning. Have left the counting until the spawning has taken place as we should have the most frogs then so I will keep you posted.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:17 am

To my dismay this morning I awoke to a very bad frost and couldn't believe it when I saw the whole of the shallow end of the large pond completely frozen over. :( I dread to think what the small pond looks like. I can imagine that it is well frozen and the spawn could be ruined. I will go out a little later to see the damage but at the moment the sciatic pain in my leg is preventing me from doing anything. I am so cross that I hadn't noticed the weather forecast yesterday as I could probably have covered over the spawn. I am hoping for the best that the amount of frogs in the little pond will have kept the water moving so it hasn't had a chance to freeze. We shall soon see.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Thu Mar 10, 2011 10:00 am

In the little pond the spawn was quite frozen but I am still hopefull that things will be okay there. The frogs are gaining momentum as the spawn is now being laid in the large pond and that seems to be okay. It is funny as the water seems quite grey and the frogs match it completely so it is hard from my kitchen door to be able to count the frogs. They seem to change shade with the water :D
I am glad that due to my back being so bad I hadn't had a chance to take out all the dead stems of the plants and now the frogs have chosen to lay on it. The fish don't seem to get up to the shallows where the plants are so the little taddies when they hatch should be fairly safe in the beginning.
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:57 am

The fish have been up on the top of the water and have found the spawn to be quite delicious :(
I thought they wouldn't be able to get to them but they have. I noticed that a lot of the spawn has now developed into tadpoles so hopefully they will be able to hide themselves away. Today though another drama developed when Bethany saw a Heron sitting on the fence next to the pond. Luckily he must have already eaten as when I looked he was flying away and wasn't interested in the pond. :D I just hope he doesn't come back. We had one on the pond a while ago but again it didn't eat and I shoed it away. It could be a route that they take to Fairburn Ings the nature reserve and are intent on getting there.
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Re: Frogs

Postby retropwr on Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:38 pm

I'd keep an eye out for that Heron if I were you, I'd say it stopped because it saw what it thought would be an easy meal.

We have a Heron that regularly sits on neighbours roofs (and probably ours but I can't see that from the window :) ). It seems to be looking to make sure it is safe to come down. I have watched it for several minutes before it eventually comes down to the garden, and then what seems like several more minutes as it slowly aproaches the pond. If it sees movement in the gardens it flies off.
We have a small lake about half a mile away and some larger lakes about 2 miles away (as the Heron flies) so it is definantly after an easy meal and has succeeded at least once, when I looked out and saw it reach through the net and grab a fish, it's weight weighed the net down enough to reach.
Richard
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Re: Frogs

Postby alison on Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:32 pm

What a shame you lost a fish to the Heron. I would be paranoid if I had. So far it hasn't been seen again and I haven't seen it on the pond.I hope if it does come back it will be shooed away before it can do any damage. The Heron we saw the time before was just about to wade into the pond when I opened the door and it flew off, so who knows it might be the same Heron but that was a year ago I think and we haven't seen them in-between times.
The little taddies are doing well in both ponds. In the little pond they are all sucking away at the algae on the sides and the water level is practically up to the top so I have to be a little more careful when topping up as they can slide over the edge with the water flow. The water is quite green as there is no filter or running water in it.
In the large pond the taddies are mainly hanging round a large clump of the japanese monster marsh marigold plant. We love the way they all throng together and we are able to pick up loads in one handful. Nature is wonderful. :D
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