Topic: Frogs and Fish

[mountain flower]

New to my life is a pond at last.... only took the whole of summer to have this dug... but it is fab...
I have placed logs and stones and pebbles all around, have a lovely plant in the middle, a few floating hyacinths...
Along with 5 frogs....... who take delight in the pond, they hide under a lovely sculptured piece of wood we found, and have place it onto a couple of rocks just above the water.... they can be found all curled up under the wood... so sweet......
And the five fish we bought all so far have survived, and swim around happily together, very social the Shubunkins... The Goldfish family but a bit more interesting to look at, they grow to about 6 inches long.......
Guess when you get into your ponds.... it means that the middle years of life are taking their toll!!!!
 

[Epitome]

Actually that might be something I might put in our garden as I like water features and they attract butterflies and dragonflies and frogs.A duck would be nice or a great crested grebe as well but you would need a massive pond for those.
Can you upload a picture for us to see it...

[mountain flower]

Will do... later... yes we have pond skaters, and all sorts goin on... and a little fountain too....

[mountain flower]

This mornings delight was being able to stroke the frog under his chin and also on his back.. I was absolutely delighted and felt true happiness.... expressing to my partner how tame they had become and had got used to us.
Later however I was told that it wasn't us who had tamed them. I was amused to find that the neighbours dog who lives down stairs (we all share the garden) took the frogs out of the pond in his mouth, carried them onto the lawn and sat stairing at them, until he became bored and wandered off!! she has to put the frogs back in the pond as they sit on the lawn not knowing what to do!!!! so being presented to humans as opposed to a dogs jaw is obviously a walk in the park!!!!!! so joy and humor this morning what a great day so far.... didnt see all five frogs, only three were around... but all five fish came up and had their breakfast!!!

[mountain flower]

  Beautiful sunny day. 

First chance to go out this year and see how our pond is doing, as we have been away from our usual residence for the last few months, due to upgrading work in side of.. well everything really.  So have been back here now for two months, and needing a break from doing all our interior stuff,  deciding which books to keep and which I can get rid of (we dont have the floor to ceiling book shelf we built,anymore) and went into our shared garden to see how the pond has been.

What delight.. the neighbour has kept the fish going over winter with small feeds and all five fish are still alive, and have probably doubled in size, once again such a lovely feeling to see them, and the best joy for me, was the frog poping its head up to say hi!! I squealed in delight! and they have given birth to quite a lot of tadpoles!!! The water needs some attention now, as has gone a bit yuky and dark, and as the tadpoles are very small and black it was useless to take a picture!!

I've hooked all the debris out, and dead slimly yukky leaves, and cut down the dying water plants, which are beginning to sprout new shoots... so these should all be fine...........

I am really happy about this small achievement of ours,having five fish still alive, and our frogs still around..........

Simple delights, which bring a great pleaure.......... I will in due course try to get a picture of all the little frogs.. if I manage to grab a shot of them before they all jump away......

[Epitome]

Sounds good! I have a tiny water feature which I must get up and running and try and attract some wild life. If I get time tomorrow I will start on it, first I have to do a Cello repair and another coat of varnish on a violin and then I will set up the water feature. CG, pictures I look forward to.

[mountain flower]

Have not seen the tadpoles turning into newts, then frogs, so I dont know what has happened to them, which is a shame, so no photots I am sorry to say.

Sadly also one frog died, or rather a dog visitor to our neighbour kinda killed it!! and only seen one of the fish recently, though I am told they can disappear for a while, then suddenly they are seen again, so may still have 5. Also seen our other smaller fish the Tench and Rudd, who dart around very quickly.  The frogs so far are not as friendly as last year, but I hope it will only take a few more visits until they get used to me visiting and let me stroke them again, I think they are possibly different frogs now, but obviously dont know, I think the one I was stroking got killed!

Anyway, thats all the goings on at the moment.

[admin]

We should go to Bently priory lake and get some frogs for you. Perhaps also there are other creatures that could be introduced that would attract more frogs.
I could do with a cooko's egg to put under one of my canaries as she is happily sitting on nothing. :laugh:

[mountain flower]

Saw two new frogs last night, a what I presume was the mother and the smaller baby frog.... so lovely sat amognst the rushes.  The mother was not the frog pictured, so we have two different ones in the pond now.. wonder if the baby is one of the off spring from the frog spawn I saw? Not sure how long they take from tadpoles to grow into a small frog, have to have a look on the internet!! very cute indeed he/she was.

Tried to get a pic, but it was fuzzy, have to wait till they get tamer with me, and sit back on the rocks, they just poke there heads up now, or sit looking from the rushes at me... I chatted to them but I am told they cant hear as they dont have ears.. maybe the sounds resonates in their body or something though! so I carried on!!!

[mountain flower]

Ah saw the first fairly tiny little baby frog... managed to let him hop into my palm and feel his cold little wet feeling body.  So cute! Didn't have camera on me as had just come down to feed the fish, and he probably would not have showed up against the rocks, as his colour is the colour of the rocks.......

Think I am getting older taking such delight in all of this, or is it going back to how you were as a kid delighted in the world around you and looking at it all with wonder!

[mountain flower]

BABY FROG!

At last got a picture of a baby frog, this is not the one I saw a few weeks ago, this one was smaller..... very cute, one little move and off he gently leaps into the pond.

Spent a bit of time round the pond on Sunday watching the frogs, you just suddenly see the bulbous eyes staring up at you above the water, clutching onto the bulrushes, or poping out from a rock.  One little move and they disappear.  They are not yet as friendly as last years, maybe they just wont be, as I was able to touch these under the chin almost immediately. 

FRISKY FROGS!!!Just realised as writing this that maybe they are like this as it is an intimate time for them, and I am intruding!!!

One of the frisky frogs is the weirdest one I've seen, lifted a piece of wood up and first I thought there was just one frog, but saw a second one, like the colour of dry dirt, I touched it and it sort of wobbled, I then realised it was a frog, almost like jelly not quite fully set! even in the water this frog is the strangest brown colour, not nice to say, but not a pretty frog at all! though its mate obviously thinks its ok!!!!!! see the frisky frog picture!!!!

So we are likely to have more babies next year!!!!

[Epitome]

  They look like intelligent creatures, you sure they are frogs?

[fiddlinaround]

"Froggie went a courtin', he did go, uh huh, uh huh!

[mountain flower]

   Well the frogs certainly have been at it again, a whole pile of frog spawn in the pond, little bits of jelly all clumped together! And the fish have survived the ice on the pond. 
 
Ah the delights of Spring, I love it.

[admin]

Lovely indeed! I must create a pond this summer and see if we can get some dragonflies and birds coming in for a bath.
 
BTW crazy girl any chance of me taking a look at your frogs under UV and Infra red?