One of the things I inherited in my new garden is a swimming pool.
"Wow! That's so posh," people say to me. But then they see it!
It was apparently built in the 1970s, but the problem was that Frogs (and other things) fell into the chlorinated water and died.
So they stopped using it and, by the time I bought it, it was a green stinking soup where the only option was to cover my nose and pump it out.
The plan is to turn it into a wildlife pond, but my first problem is that Frogs and spawn are in the (now) unchlorinated puddle at the bottom. So it was time to undertake a Frog Rescue before the puddle dries up.
Here is our intrepid hero at work (that's me!). (You can see in the corner some of the planks and other structures I'm using in the short-term to help any wildlife that falls in to get out, but I check it daily just in case).
Up came nine Frogs and giant blobs of spawn, transferred into the small ponds elsewhere in the garden.
But this is where the story turns rather sad, for one of the Frogs turned out to be affected by some kind of disease. Terribly emaciated, I was astonished it was still alive.
I am not expert enough to diagnose whether it is affected by one of these terrible Ranavirus-type diseases, thought to have been imported from abroad in the pet trade, that have been ravaging our Frogs and Toads.
But it does lead onto a serious message, which is that I would normally not advocate the moving of amphibians and spawn. It is so tempting to raid an existing pond to stock a new one, but the basic advice is to let nature come under its own steam rather than risk moving these diseases around.
Unless, of course, you have an emergency like mine and have to resort to orange buckets and, (drumroll), Frog Rescue.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
I love your story, Roy. I hope that many others read it and get the 'feel-good' factor that I did. Hoorah for your actions, and for the patience of the other drivers!
Hats off to you Adrian. That is an amazing thing to do. I really like your idea of giving your pool back to Mother Nature. I do hope your pond soon gets plenty of new residents, all healthy too. Such a pity about that poor little guy in the photo. Did he survive? I had the opportunity to help the frog population on Sunday morning... Driving to Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve I was travelling along the A6144. Just as I was about to go under the old disused railway bridge I noticed something very small jump into the carriageway from off the pavement, right in front of me. I realised it was a frog and it was intent in crossing that 40mph section of the road. So I stopped my car and got out, walked back and then realised it was actually two frogs, a large female with a smaller male on top of her back. So I started the task of trying to catch them with my hands but every time I thought I had them, she jumped another 300mm across the road. I managed to pick the frogs up and carried them across to the other side of the road and placed them in the field they were originally heading to. I then realised that there was a queue of traffic in both directions that had stopped to allow me to get those little creatures across the road. I waved to both queues and got back in my car. The driver of the front car coming in the opposite direction actually shouted "well done mate" to me... As far as I could tell no one was annoyed and all seemed happy to wait the 2 minutes that it took me to do my good deed for the day... 2 minutes hold up for a few Sunday drivers meant two lives saved for those frogs...