Frogspawn but far less frogs in the pond
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Wildlife | 12 comments
Albert the stone frog overseeing the frogspawn
I think that my big pond cleanout in February may have rattled the frogs. Usually their annual bacchanal starts by mid March. Even though there have been a few frogs in the pond, there were loads of hopeful croaks but no frogspawn.
“Perhaps they are all the same sex.” I mused.
Last weekend when I was visiting TCL and S they proudly showed off their frogspawn. I was gutted. Why hadn’t I got some too?
But this morning the pond had frogspawn, in different areas than usual but loads of it. I’m delighted. But instead of the forty or so amorous couples as usual there are probably not more than four couples and a few singletons.
I wonder whether the frog population in our area has finally succumbed to the virus that is wiping out frogs in hoards in the UK.
When I cleaned out the pond I only found one dead frog under the thick blanket of weed. I also discovered about ten live frogs that had been hibernating in the sludge at the bottom of the pond. Apparently it’s the male frogs that hibernate at the bottom of the pond. Unlike humans the male frogs are generally smaller than the females. If you are interested in identifying which is which, the male frog tends to be the one on top of a pair.
I wonder where the female frogs hibernate? Any ideas?
Unfortunately a lot of the fresh frogspawn is floating beside a little stone raft. This is where the garden birds come to drink and bathe. Suddenly they have a fast food outlet too. They must be overjoyed by this miracle.
So I’m going to move some of this frogspawn to the little six foot pond to give these future frogs a better chance of survival.
I’ve spotted several tiny frogs, just a year old, in the garden this spring. These will not begin to breed until they are two or three years old. So a few out of the hundreds that we raised last year have survived. And there must be more in areas of the garden where I haven’t ventured yet.
I love frogs. They are great help in the garden as they eat slugs and snails. Apart from that I’ve collected frog things for over forty years. I even was given frog knickers once! When I see one in the garden I’m always tickled – for me it’s a lucky sign. My name was Frog at university after all.
When I moved here the previous owners had left a superb stone frog beside their pond. It took real strength to ring them and ask if they’d left it by mistake, as every inch of me wanted to keep it.
I was so relieved when they said that they didn’t want it and that it belonged with the pond. When the builders made the big pond, they christened him Albert. He’s in the photo above and needs his biannual de mossing.
I’m determined to do everything that I can to keep frogs alive and kicking on our patch of ground. If the same happens next year, I’ll start raising the spawn in aquariums, like my mum did 20 years ago.
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I have problems with duck weed in my pond established now , near the irish west coast, for six years.I am thinking of putting in some goldfish to eat some of it it gets so thick my terrier has thought it was a lawn and got rather wet!
Does anyone else have this problem ? and have goldfish sorted it out
There were not many tadpoles this year and I found one only last week still not developed into a frog but a good size! is this normal? I also have newts and do not want to kill off the natural wildlife.
The frogs up here at 60 degrees North sometimes seem a bit desperate – I find globs of spawn on top of the compost cover, outside the greenhouse on the ground,and in various odd places as well as in our small natural pond. I always scrape up what I can and put into the pond – why are they so contrary?
Great to read about frogs, I love ’em.
Don’t quite know what has happened to them down my way, I haven’t seen one for some time. When I was a kid you couldn’t move for them. Every night I’d go outside with my mum and brother and help them across the road. There were squished ones everywhere.
I miss them, frogs. They’re lovely little things, and like you say, do a lot of good for the garden.
How strange your topic to be frogs today, when this morning my lazy lay in was thrown into a turmoil by the familiar squeal coming from the conservatory… ninny noo, black velvet frog murderer of the feline variety had a slimy squealing victim cornered between the french doors and the never used treadmill.
After covering the disgruntled victim with a green plastic cat bowl and shouting at our feline princess I waddled the length of the garden in my pyjamas( the neighbours must be disgusted) and found the net and deposited our slimy green friend back in the pond. It was quite small so I am assuming from your post it was probably a male one, I asked him where all the females were and he informed me they are on a winter easy jet super saver jaunt to the coastal regions of Spain.
We had spawn about 3 weeks ago but haven’t seen any tadpoles as usually most get gobbled up by our big koi carp who hangs out next to the tapioca waiting for the black wrigglies 🙁
Hi,
I came across this site by chance. How lovely to find other humans who care about frogs! I moved to a ponded property Oct. 2004 and have kept a record of the frog arrivals since and this year they are quite late. 2/3/05. 46 frogs arrived overnight. 9/3/06. pond heaving with overnight arrivals too many to count. 11/2/07. one frog arrived by 20th Feb just 15 frogs followed the weather in Leics had suffered daily extremes. 23/2/08. frogs began arriving, first spawn 7/3/08. 24/2/09 first frogs arrived. 1/3/10. 5 frogs 1 courting couple but 3 dead frogs in grass. 17/3/11 about a dozen pairs and some singletons arrived together with quite a few newts. My pond is small but my main concern was tadpoles and newts getting trapped in the pump a Blagdon cyclone filter I fitted. I changed this to a Hozelock EasyClear as it is supposed to be amphibious friendly but sadly I still found a few unfortunate newts. I bought some net,the type ballet frocks are made of! It fitted around the outside filter cage ok and so far so good. Should save a few newts from drowning and tadpoles too I hope. best wishes frog caretakers. JaneE
I was very sad earlier this year when I found about 12 dead frogs in my pond after the really cold weather and feared I wouldn’t get any frogspawn this year. But my annual “frog fest” got underway with the remaining males croaking away and many females appearing (from where I don’t know). I now have lots of frog spawn, but I can’t see many frogs now (although during the height of the mating I reckon there were about 20). In previous years there have been more than this, but I’m just glad there were some as I’ve really grown to love my frogs since I moved here and the garden wouldn’t be the same without them.
We have Pacific tree frogs all over the place but I doubt their usefulness in the garden as they are tree frogs, not ground frogs. I’ve been thinking about a pond, but it’s not high on the list of things to do (in fact, I’m supposed to be painting the hive stand right now). But I wonder if I built a pond, if I’d get the right kind of frogs to move in. I wonder how they would get here.
I’m fond of toads, too.
I am glad the frogs have arrived-and perhaps more will still come. It has been a strange winter. I have only found one dead one this season too and plenty of spawn here so I remain eternally optimistic that they will continue to delight us each Spring.I’m glad to know someone as nutty about them as me!
Fantastic! ‘d love to have a pond with frogs,but I have a walled garden so I’m not so sure they’d get in:o/
Hi Fiona,
Our garden pond is all but a puddle in comparison with yours but is now getting on for 30 years old, along with its original liner, and has produced frogs for us every year to date. We thought last year was the best ever with non of the spawn getting frosted the garden was jumping with miniature offspring throughout the late summer months. But this spring has brought more than we have ever seen and they are currently forming one blank wriggling mass, as they do when they first emerge, which fills the centre of the pond. I’m sure this is many more than it can support and like yours seems to have been produced by fewer adults. I haven’t found any dead frogs at all so Rickmansworth’s population seem to be thriving. Like you I love them and for me they herald the arrival of spring. They may however cause us a problem this year when they are at large in the garden as we have a new puppy and I understand they are quite poisonous to dogs if they eat them. I love your garden party idea and would have wanted to come but sadly I think said pup might prevent that. What a shame I would have loved to see your garden and meet you both having enjoyed your blog immensely for well over a year now.
Best Wishes
Sue