Someone in a posting quite a while back, when I was admiring pics of the frogs in their pond and wondering how to attract some of my own, said to me that they had put in a pond and the frogs just appeared.
Today I was doing my daily "garden tour" - checking everything out - and I found three little green froggies in our two ponds. One in a teeny tiny pond that's only about 15 gallons, and two in the larger 220 gallon pond. I can't believe my luck :-) I'll try to snap a pick or two, but they're pretty shy so no promises.
Thinking about why they might show up this year, I wonder if it's because the ponds are still. I usually have a waterfall or a fountain in my ponds, but this year I decided to keep the small pond as a completely natural habitat, and the larger pond and its environs have been undergoing some renovations so it only has still water sitting in it too.
Anyone else have an opinion, or a frog story of their own to share?
--Ginny
I have froggies!
Good for you Ginny! Frogs showing up are a sign of a healthy environment. Hope you can get pics so I can show them to my step-daughter (bonafide frog nut!).
Erynne
The initial thread you referred to was probably Sanannie's. Her frogs are unbelievable. So glad they have made it to your place as well.
Ann
I too am a complete frog nut Erynne :-) There's just something about them that really appeals to me.
I'm really glad they came to live with me too Ann, but I'm afraid I might have a problem in the late fall when it's time for them to hibernate. Neither of the two ponds are deep enough for them to hibernate safely - they freeze solid every year. I'm going to have to keep a very close eye on the frog population and make sure I remove each and every one to live another day. But what do I do with them then?
If I take them down the road to the creek or the river will they stay there and not try to come back to my ponds do you think? Oh bother - that means they won't be in my ponds anymore too :-( I'll just have to hope I get new tenants next year I guess.
--Ginny
Check out this link Ginny and scroll down to number 10 I think it is. Are you up to having powdered crickets in your house, lol!
http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/UrbanOutback/part40.html
Ginny, some frogs, probaby all the ones that live at my house, can freeze over the winter. I'm sure my pond freezes solid most winters. Some frogs have that natural antifreeze in their cells thing going on over winter. I wouldn't mess with nature. If you have as many frogs as I do in a few years, you'll be taking them to a stream just to cut back on the noise.
Thanks for the link Erynne. Very interesting reading. Even there, though, they don't recommend taking the frogs out of their natural habitat. At some point we're going to have to catch one and take good photos of it so I can id it. Then I'll see how they hibernate. If it's on land I'll do my best to create the natural habitat they need for the winter so they'll be safe and snug until spring. As for the powdered crickets, I've had to feed tropical fish worse things than that - I think I could take it :-)
Echoes, I'm hoping you're right that these guys have gravitated to a habitat that they can survive. Don't mess with nature is usually the best way to go. LOL I'm just so happy to finally have frogs that I don't want to think about them not being here next year!
--Ginny
If you dealt with something ickier than powdered crickets, I don't even want to know what, lol. Yeah, I guess it's best to figure out exactly what kind of frogs you have there so you can take appropriate action. My step-daughter has all kinds of sites about frogs book-marked on the home computer so I'll see what's in them.
Congrats on the froggies Ginny! Ü
I don't have froggies yet (didn't get down to the valley's pond to catch some tadpoles).....but I (and all the other gardeners at the veggie patch) do have one young gopher that seems tickled pink to have such a feast spread before him. He's pretty smart too (poison grain has been dropped down his hole and he just laughs, kicks it out and loads up on the fresh stuff). Actually haven't found any damage from him (I think he visits everyone's garden so the damage is really minimal).
Your talk of frogs made me think of him........he seems to run through the garden in froggie leaps and bounds (I'm sure at the height of his jump he's on the lookout for the choicest morsel).
Your gopher sounds like a real hoot to watch Pam! We have a vole - probably more than one but this guy is a real character. He has tunnels and access holes here and there in the yard, and when he pops out and one of my cats notices him and runs to the hole he simply comes out another "door" and sits there watching them :-)
We also have a chipmunk who keeps a pretty low profile because of the cats. Last night we had a severe storm roll through suddenly. When I noticed all the birds going to roost and the clouds rolling in in fast-forward I could suddenly hear him squeaking out an alarm. I think there must have been a tornado fairly close by somewhere 'cause this came in fast! The sound of the wind was weird too - it was a kind of rushing sound, but not really the freight train sound you get when the tornado is right there - and the temperature dropped 10 degrees in about 45 seconds. The rain was horizontal - you couldn't see out the windows, but we only measured 2/10ths of an inch of precipitation over the 10 or 15 minutes it lasted.
Unfortunately the storm also took out one of my favourite trees - a young maple. It split it right down the centre and the broken half landed right on one of my new gardens (I'll get pics when I get home this evening). My chrysanthemum that everyone likes so much is right underneath it, and it was just starting to form flower buds :-( I can only hope that the smaller branches and leaves kept the main trunk up high enough that it didn't actually destroy the plants under it. The tree, unfortunately, will have to be taken down completely.
On the bright side, the tree completely missed both of the ponds, so the froggies should be safe and sound :-)
--Ginny
Sorry to hear about your Maple Ginny. I'm always amazed at how the young trees (and healthy older trees) tend to have so much damage done to them but the dying old ones rarely do. We've had healthy trees topped but our dying Maple (that we've been risking life and limb to bring down) is never broken by high winds (and most of it is rotten).
If funnel clouds were sighted on radar you prolly had a tornado pass through. It might also have been plough winds (Western coined word, Easterner's may call them straight line winds).....you'll be able to tell if everything that was damaged(throughout your neighborhood) was broken in one direction and the limbs fell in that direction. Plough winds also bring cold air down with them.
Straight Line Winds
A "plough" wind is a strong, straight-line wind associated with downdrafts that spread out ahead of isolated thunderstorms or small clusters of thunderstorms. These winds push across the ground like a blade in front of a snowplow or bulldozer, damaging susceptible objects and scattering the debris. The damage caused is often mistakenly attributed to a tornado. The wind may roar as it passes by. Damage can be heavy and confined to narrow zones like that caused by tornadoes. Plough winds (and the damage they cause) are all in one general direction, rather than rotating as in a tornado. A plough wind is termed "severe" if it exceeds 90 km/h.
"Derechos" are areas of greater wind damage associated with clusters of intense thunderstorms or lines of closely-spaced thunderstorms. They are longer-lived and more intense than plough winds. http://www.mb.ec.gc.ca/air/summersevere/ae00s25.en.html
Plough winds belong to a family of strong, straight-line downburst winds found in thunderstorms. As for the name, I can only guess one helped to plough a field and was so named. Inside a severe thunderstorm there are both updrafts and downdrafts of air. The downdrafts rush to the ground with great force, maybe 100 to 150 km/h and occasionally even higher. When they strike the ground the air spreads horizontally in a burst of wind, much like water pouring from a tap and striking the sink below. Plough winds can blow continuously but the damage is usually confined to an area less than 3 km across. They are capable of toppling trees, ripping apart buildings and lifting roofs. In fact, plough winds and other downbursts may be responsible for some damage attributed to tornadoes. They are more common than tornadoes and have the power of a twister but the damage pattern looks different - a circular or semi-circular swath left by tornadoes and a starburst or more commonly a straight line pattern from downbursts.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/inter/help/weatherphenomena.htm#Q5
Patischell reports the plow winds (she calls them straightline winds) roar incredibly loud when the front of the hurricane storms move onto land in Florida.
This is the building being constructed that the recent plough winds brought down at the edge of town (we had breakfast at Smitty's Restaurant beside it and the staff there reported that a fast incredibly strong moving wind went through). If a tornado had struck it would have been scattered all over.
Here's our garden buddy/nemesis ....he has figured out that the oldest garden watchdog (a German Shepherd name Boo) isn't a threat and so the smart alecky gopher will play come and get me from just feet away. The crippled old dog's eyes say if'n I was younger.....
Yes, it quite possibly was plough winds Pam, although I haven't had the chance yet to survey any other damage in our village or surrounding area. I also haven't been able to get much from the news reports today yet. So I still have no idea what really happened, other than the fact that the further north or northwest you go the more damage there was, and there were reports of funnels sighted, but I don't know where.
If there were tornadoes in our area I would expect them to have been maybe 10 - 20 kilometres away from us. The last time I was out in a storm that was very similar to this one was once about 20 or so years ago when my family was fishing at the northeastern edge of London and a tornado swept through the Whiteoaks subdivision in the south end of London (while we huddled under an abandoned flatbed trailer beside the pond). A friend of mine had his house picked right up off of the foundation, turned 10 degrees, and set back down on the foundation again.
On a cheerier note - ya gotta admit, that gopher sure is a cutie pie :-) Too bad he has the bad manners to mess with your gardens.
Too sad to lose your tree, Ginny. Your chrysanthemum should survive, even if it got crushed. Anyway, you know where you can get a peice just like it.
I've seen a few touch down but always at a comfortable distance.....your experience (and your friend's) Ginny would certainly be one of those memories that lasts! Last summer we had one nasty storm that made me think I might have an up close and personal experience with one but the night temperatures gradually dropped and the cells lost some of their pent up energy (just before it arrived).
I really do get a kick out of that gopher (however if I discover some damage on a prize plant he'll know about it). We also have a skunk (only saw him once) but have smelt his presence a couple of times. Usually it's later in the evening and it sure makes us pick up the hoeing tempo (we also become a bit jumpy.......watching for black and white movement ;).
I know the creek below has froggies tho (we hear them often). We have also seen Mallards raising their young, Cormorants , a Loon, a mother deer and her fawn on the other side (we enjoy watching the fawn come out of hiding near sunset) and have seen a deer's footprints though the garden but no damage to my plants (yet). Also early in the season we saw the tracks of a Moose or Cow (cloven hoofs) going through the plot.....cows aren't pastured around there so chances are it was a Moose.
Going by your description there Pam, we could very well have experienced plough winds last night here in Ontario. I haven't been scared by wind as much as I was last night......it just howled! There are trees down in various parts around here and my neighbor 2 doors down looks to have lost a big section of her mature maple tree. I'm still trying to figure out what part cracked on my maple and if it's a hazard now.....I'm gonna call an arborist.
Well Ginny, I hope we don't get any other crazy episodes like last night and I too am sorry to hear about your little maple. It seems like all the trees damaged around here are maples too! It's funny but I don't think I've ever seen conifers damaged by storms; only deciduous trees.
Erynne
Well - the verdict is in. Plough winds it was. Here's a pic of my downed tree.
We're going to try to save the other half after all. Anyone know what we can use to seal the raw wood?
The plants in the flowerbed came through with surprisingly little damage, except for one castor bean that got broken off. This sunflower is standing straight and tall - only 4 feet away from the tree that fell. Go figure!
Finally - here's a picture of the froggie in my small pond. I think he's a real ham. It was almost like he posed for this picture :-)
Goodnight everyone. "Talk" tomorrow again.
--Ginny
I believe what I have are Northern Leopard Frogs. Here is the information that I keep finding on them at most frog web sites:
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"The Northern Leopard Frog uses a variety of habitats to meet its needs throughout the year. Separate sites are generally used for overwintering and breeding. Overwintering sites are well-oxygenated water bodies, such as streams or larger ponds, that do not freeze solid; breeding sites are temporary ponds that often dry up in late summer. A typical breeding pond is 30 to 60 m in diameter, 1.5 to 2.0 m deep, located in an open area, with a lot of emergent vegetation, and no fish. In the summer the frogs are found in a wide variety of habitats, but usually not in heavily treed areas, in grass that is more than a meter tall, or in open sandy areas. The preferred habitat of the frogs seems to be vegetation 15 to 30 cm tall that is relatively close to water."
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It seems that I have inadvertently built them the almost perfect habitat for summer living. Both ponds are in open areas, with a natural ring of grasses about 8 to 12 inches tall that was left in place to give the ponds a more natural appearance. They are also both in the relative middle of my yard and surrounded by gardens with lots of black mulch (retains the moisture they need), a thriving insect population, and a collection of well-spaced trees - both mature and juvenile. My yard is also pesticide free. I find I can live quite happily with dandelions, clover, ants, spiders, and all of the other "pests" that make up a healthy environment. Since they move back to deeper well-oxygenated moving water for hibernation around October, I don't have to do a thing to keep them safe for the winter. They'll do it all by themselves. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that they enjoyed their summer so well at my place this year that maybe some of them will come back next year :-)
Ginny - I think your handsome frog there is either a Mink frog or Green frog, rather than a leopard frog. I wanted to know the kinds of frogs that hang out at my place and found that the bright green, spotted ones that like to hop around in the grass are the Leopard Frogs. The Mink frogs or Green frogs hang out almost entirely in the water, they float there, or sit on the water plants.
To tell for sure if you have a mink frog, they apparently emit a musky odor when stroked. I haven't actually tried this, but you can go ahead and try it! LOL
Also, the Green frog has really prominent external eardrums right behind it's eyes.
This guy from last year, is either a Green Frog or a Mink frog - I dunno, I didn't take a whiff. LOL
Sandy
This message was edited Jul 25, 2006 9:01 PM
Hi Sandy. Love your Mink Frog - he's a cutie!
From what I've found out about Northern Leopard Frogs, they can range in colour from brown to green, with spots that are usually, but not always, surrounded by a lighter circle of colour. I also found out that the spots may be more or less noticeable depending on the colour variation of the frog. They have prominent ridges down their backs that are generally a lighter colour and a characteristic light stripe on the upper lip area. They do indeed enjoy hopping around in the grass.
The three frogs at my place can often be found out of the pond hopping about in the grass. They actually spend most of their time outside of the pond unless there is a lot of activity in their area that makes them feel threatened. Their ridges are not lighter coloured that I have been able to see, but they do have the characteristic markings on their upper jaw that identically matched a photo I found on one of the web sites. That, taken in conjunction with their affinity for grass rather than water, made me think I had Northern Leopard Frogs. However - once you mentioned Green Frogs and Mink Frogs I went looking again, and I found this web site (link below) with a very good picture of a green frog. If you open this picture and my picture of my little froggie side by side, you'll see they could be twins :-)
http://landscape.acadiau.ca/herpatlas/photopages/johngrnfrg8.html
There is an excellent description of the Green Frog here:
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/amphibians/taxa/species/rana_clamitans.html
Another site describes them in a way that precisely matches the ones in my ponds - "Green frogs are often seen with a greenish head but with an olive brown body. Regardless of the body and head color, there is nearly always a green facial mask before the eyes."
I was glad to "find out" that my frogs were Northern Leopard Frogs because they wouldn't try to hibernate in my shallow ponds. Now that it seems more likely they are Green Frogs, I'm not so sure. Sighhhhhhhhhh.....who knew frogs could be so complicated!
Thanks for the helping hand,
--Ginny
Ginny,
I got a shot of a nice fat Leopard Frog yesterday. Bright green with black oval spots hopping throught the grass. He didn't seem to mind getting his picture taken at all!
At one point I thought it might be a Pickerel frog so I went searching and came up with this page which shows them both side by side.
http://people.wcsu.edu/pinout/herpetology/rpalustris/pickerelfroglife.html
I learned that Leopard frogs have black oval spots and Pickerel frogs have brown rectangular spots.
And here's a Green Frog, a bronze variety. There's a lot of variation of colour in this species. The ridges extend all the way down its back.
Can you see that sneeky mosquito on it's head!
I love your froggie pictures Sandy and Ginny. It would be so cool to have a pond.
Sandy
Wow - you have sharp eyes Sandy (sanannie). I never would have seen that mosquito if I hadn't known to look for it.
It's really easy to have a pond Sandy (nightowl2). The two that I have are both rigid pre-formed ponds. The small one that has one resident little froggie only holds about 15 gallons of water. Here's a link to a picture from June just after I installed it http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2415457
This pond is only about 8 inches deep, so I didn't have to dig a very big hole (bonus!) once I had it set into the ground I just surrounded it with river pebbles, laid a layer of river pebbles in the bottom, and added 2 water hyacinths, 1 aquatic umbrella palm, and one iris. These plants keep the water nice and fresh, without having to run a pump or a filter.
--Ginny
Edited for stupidity ;-)
This message was edited Jul 26, 2006 8:07 AM