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Frogs and amphibia 2017


frogesque

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Posted
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W

Been a bit pre occupied lateley but our frogs are currently getting very voluable and amorous.

Edit: pond pump problem now resolved :)

Edited by frogesque
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Posted
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W

After a mild night, fog early morning and a bright day we now have too many frogs to count but looks like we have at least 10 pairs as well as all the hopefuls. 

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Posted
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL

Thanks frogesque for starting this thread, for yet another year of amphibian observation.:good:

Anyway today I've had the first blob of frogspawn in my pond. Noticing from the previous thread, last year I saw my first blob on the 21st, so that's a whole week earlier this year.

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Posted
  • Location: Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: warehamwx.co.uk
  • Location: Dorset

Thousands of tadpoles are now gracing my smaller pond. I'll have to reconfigure the filter pipework, as to not sweep the tadders in to the main pond, and straight in to the Koi's bellies.

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

Taddies haven't hatched yet. Interesting how the spawning is progressing after the earliest start ever here. First time there's ever been spawn in February. Got three ponds and the largest despite being in the afternoon sun longest was the last for them to start spawning in. The smallest pond was the 2nd for the spawning to start.

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Posted
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W

Thanks guys! Still no frog spawn here but pond very active.

Regarding pumps and filters, I have my pump in a bucket with tight fitting holes for the lead and hose. On top of the bucket is a neat fitting plastic garden sieve with some fine mesh in the bottom. This is covered with scotcbrite and the filled with fine gravel. The bucket sits totally submerged in the pond with a flat rock on top with some bigger pebbles to support it and allow free circulation through the filter down to the pump.This rock helps keep leaves, rubbish and blanket weed from blocking the setup.

Effectively its an under gravel bed filter, the only maintenanance in ten years has been to hose the top of the filter to remove any debris that does manage to get on top of the gravel. To my knowlege, no taddies or fish embryos have ever gone through the pump.

One pump recently gave up the ghost but you only get a 3 year warranty!

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Posted
  • Location: Haute Vienne, Limousin, France (404m ASL)
  • Weather Preferences: Warm and sunny with night time t-storms
  • Location: Haute Vienne, Limousin, France (404m ASL)

Looking forward to getting back to our lake and watching for the tadders to emerge. Spring is such a life affirming season.

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Posted
  • Location: Boar's Hill, Oxon
  • Weather Preferences: Interesting weather
  • Location: Boar's Hill, Oxon

Our school pond has been very active since weekend before last, many classes of kids got to see the whole live action, some fivesomes etc with rather rather grim examples of keen males still trying to mate with one dead and eviscerated female (!) but on the whole many many happy jolly pairs or frogs, males showing off their white throats, croaking all day  long, and now huge amounts of frogspawn of varying stages of development. The nature area also now seems to have a mating pair of blackbirds, so we are hoping they have made a nest somewhere nearby!

 

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Posted
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W

We have our first frogspawn!:yahoo:

Wet and misty all day yesterday, mild night and today is bright and sunny. Frogs are going at it full on like a Next New Year sale. More spawn showing all the time and at this rate I'll be able to walk across the pond.

 

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Posted
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W
  • Location: Kingdom of Fife: 56.2º N, 3.2º W

Quite a bit more spawn now but the cold snap has slowed the frogs down. Much scrambling about in the bottom of the pond. Only a few brave souls on the surface.

Snowing at the moment.

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  • 6 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL

Thought I would have a look on this thread to see what people had observed this year, but nobody has reported anything since last spawning season. As for my own observations, I had no surviving tadpoles this year, and I think they all died off pretty early. To be fair my ponds been in a terrible state this year, with the plant life getting so overgrown to the point that they sucked most of the water out of it. And with there been relatively little rainfall it hasn't been able to stay topped up naturally. I've been off work this week though and have removed most of the plants, and filled it up again with the hose. Hopefully next year will be more productive.

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Posted
  • Location: Fettercain/Edzell
  • Location: Fettercain/Edzell

I had been chuntering on for ages about installing a wildlife pond.  The grandchildren clubbed together and bought me a very attractive patio pond complete with plants. :)

It is, however, not suitable for amphibians, so the project is still live.

I did have the usual procession of froglets in the garden over this summer, and a few toads also.

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Posted
  • Location: Near Beverley, East Yorks. (5 metres a.s.l.)
  • Weather Preferences: Something good in all four seasons
  • Location: Near Beverley, East Yorks. (5 metres a.s.l.)

Pleased to say I have seen 3 large frogs and 2 little ones in my small
wildlife pond this week.  We had to clear a huge water lily out to make more
water room.
I have hopes of spawn next year.  Up to now my nesting Mallard duck has been
devastating them but she's a very elderly bird now and only managed one duckling
this year.

B. :)

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Posted
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
37 minutes ago, ciel said:

I had been chuntering on for ages about installing a wildlife pond.  The grandchildren clubbed together and bought me a very attractive patio pond complete with plants. :)

It is, however, not suitable for amphibians, so the project is still live.

I did have the usual procession of froglets in the garden over this summer, and a few toads also.

Why do you think it's unsuitable for amphibians? Is it because it's too small, if so I'll tell my pond is only small as well. Though it did replace a punctured larger pond 3 years ago. The frogs still use it for spawning, though the populations probably too big for it. In that time the only successful year I've had for tadpole development was last year, and maybe this year would have been just as successful if I hadn't have allowed it to become so overgrown and stagnant? The previous pond provided successful frog reproduction almost annually, with the exception of later years when my Mum put fish in there, much to my annoyance, and after that the liner started to fail as the plants had actually started to tear it up with big strong roots, which I made worse in my efforts to remove them. I then got a small prefabricated one and filled the bigger pond in around it. I wish now I had just got a new liner and repaired the old one properly. That was a frog's paradise that was with adult frogs always in there, especially in warm dry weather. I remember one day it started raining in the Summer and all of a sudden there was a mass exodus of them hopping out and away, it was amazing to see as you rarely see such congregations except in the breeding season. Oh well if the current one proves over more time to be unideal for them, I'll have to consider providing them with another big one.

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Posted
  • Location: Fettercain/Edzell
  • Location: Fettercain/Edzell
12 hours ago, Walsall Wood Snow said:

Why do you think it's unsuitable for amphibians? 

The said patio pond is a ceramic bowl, basically, without easy access or exit for frogs etc.

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Posted
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
  • Location: Walsall Wood, Walsall, West Midlands 145m ASL
3 hours ago, ciel said:

The said patio pond is a ceramic bowl, basically, without easy access or exit for frogs etc.

Oh ok fair enough it's even smaller than I thought. Maybe one day you'll be able to get one a bit bigger if you aspire to have a pond for amphibians. :)

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  • 4 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

Unless there's a warm up I can't see any early spawning this year

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