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First frog

And I'm very excited.

I created my new pond a few months ago from the deep bottom half of a cat litter tray that I was going to throw away. I sadly don't have room for anything larger.

I have sunk it into the garden and it contains some plants in pots, a floating frogbit plant, a large rock for things to climb out on and a small solar aerator. This doesnt actually leave much room for wildlife but I was disappointed that so far I had only mozzy larvae and rat-tailed maggots in there.

At the weekend a large green female common frog arrived to take up residence and is still there. I and very, very excited by this (and I do have a life, honest :-))but presumable she will go elsewhere for the winter.

  • Good for you ffroglet!! Just goes to show that you don't necessarily need a large pond to attract wildlife! Hopefully no 2 will arrive soon then you'll have even more next spring!!

    "All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)

    My photos on Flickr

  • Hi Ffroglet... I can fully understand your excitement because you created this for a purpose and now you are seeing it being utilised for that purpose. And I am so glad you posted your message as it has given me an idea - presumably one could even use something like an old (undamaged) washing-up bowl to create a small pond.

    You've got me excited now - but my OH might be a bit under-whelmed when I tell him what he will be doing this BH weekend. Well - why not? I already have the frogs as they spend most of the summer in my yard (don't ask me why!). Can I ask - where did you get your solar aerator?

    The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.

    The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!

  • Hi Squirrel

    I'm really pleased that I have inspired you :-) I did it because I had heard of bowls and buckets being turned into ponds

    I think I got the aerator online from a company called Primrose and it was less than £20. There were some quite expensive ones around with 2 or more airstones but I only need one for a pond this size.

    Hope your pond works out too

  • Hi ffroglet

    Many thanks for that - I shall go and investigate.

    Squirrel

     

    The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.

    The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!

  • old containers burried to the prim attract frogs in summer and place around the garden will give them places to live in hot dry summers  which at the monent we are not getting

    the friedly bid watcher

  • I am very pleased that my frog returned to my little pond last week. I suspect she wintered in one of my wood piles rather than the frogitat, but hopefully she'll bring a friend soon :-)

  • Here's a big load opf frogspawn I found in north Wales in mid March. It was in a large puddle in an upland track, nowhere near water and above the snowline as there was still snow around

    You can see my reflection in every egg :-)

  • I remember our first frog. It really is a special thing. Has a friend turned up yet?

  • Sadly no friend yet, fingers crossed though :-)

  • Hi all, this is my first post so you have to put up with the introduction ;o)

    Last year i took over an allotment, and was pleased to find the local brook ran right alongside my plot. One week, every morning, there was a newt swimming about the foot of my steps. This stayed in my mind, as every time we had heavy rain, the brook received overflow from somewhere, and a mini tidal wave washed everything downstream, newt included.

    Later in the summer I was horrified when I accidentally injured a frog which had been lurking in the weeds around a fencepost. In September I decided to build a frog pond, much to the amusement of my fellow allotmenteers. I got the pond finished during the winter, with lots of logs,etc., around the banks, then awaited visitors. On March 18th this year I saw the first spawn, and noted that it was the first day in some time that the pond was ice-free.

    Over the next two weeks more froggies came to spawn, and I ended up with five nice clumps off eggs. Today (May 4) the first lot are just showing their back legs, and the others are growing happily.

    This year the pond will develop much more in the way of plantlife, and I'm hoping for newts next spring. Is it coincidence that we are now under the flightpath of two herons? I never saw any last year, and I keep an eye on the sky as we get a regular visit from a red kite.

    Anyway, nice to meet you guys, thanks for reading.