What lives in or near your Pond

That's a beautiful picture, BeaHive. I'm heading to Eugene for Mother's Day - I'm definitely packing layers, though my mom said it was close to 70+ last week. She also tells me to wait five minutes for it to change!

KaperC...who knows what May will bring. We did have a two day heat wave.. pack a sweater, jacket, mittens and bathing suit..ya never know!
Have fun with your Mom!

it is spring time so my pond
is full of stickle back babies and Salamander eggs :-) not a lot of frogs
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/Strever_1173750567_159.jpg
http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/a.gracile.eggs.html

Dick

Beautiful ponds..as a kid growing up in CA we used to catch salamanders and blue belly lizards & make them homes out of cigar boxes. Brings back nice memories...perhaps not for the salamanders & lizards... but for me. ;)

So gorgeous strevor!

Weve got lots of sallies in the pond now. Just about ready to hatch.

BeaHive,

My sis sent me this photo right after I read your post.

Strever, I have never seen salamanders before. Thanks for the education. :-)
We have lots of small gecko-like lizards here, but I don't know what type they are.

Awww Crimsontsavo, your frog was a very handsome guy. That is indeed a sad story.

LOL on the parrot feather Tammie. Well, if it becomes invasive in the desert then you know there’s a problem for sure ;-).

You have the makings of a great pond Nanegoat66!

Wow HollyAnn, that is quite the story about your pond. I’ll bet you will be thrilled when it finally goes in.

Gorgeous pond Dick! I’d love it if some salamanders found my yard…somehow.

Three parrots sounds like a lot of work (and noise) KaperC! I still miss my little parrotlet. He was quite the character, but was a manageable size….thankfully. LOL.

Those snow pics make me shiver just looking at them ;-). Where is the koi castle, BeaHive?

Koi castle is under water. It looks like a large rock, but has holes that they can swim into for secuity,seclusion and to escape from
preditors. They spent the entire winter in there. Was not sure if they were still alive..but they all came out in Feb.. happy to be swimming in the pond again. They now go in for short "naps" and spend most of the day scoping out the pond...
Recent picture of the gang..

Thanks sunnyg.

Happy fishies, BeaHive. That yellow one is cool.

sunnyg..a picture of the Koi castle. The fish are in there now having a party... sure hope it warms up soon.. my lilly's are starting to leaf out..and I need to do a clean out of the pond -repot some plants ..it is yucky!

Thanks for posting this BeaHive…you had me curious. What a neat set-up! Here is an out of focus shot of the party on the parrot feather...ribbit!

Where did he find the bubble gum!

lol@bubblegum

I see a BUD on my waterlily!! I can't get a picture yet though hehe. Im so excited.
Ive been growing them for years and this makes just the second time I have ever had a bloom!!! LOL

Delightful photos! So many frogs! Very attractive ponds too!

I have a question: for 3 nights a huge bullfrog croaked the night away. The 3rd morning I again went ot the pond to find it. No frog (toad) but many eggs floating in groups. Needless to say I was very happy to see them. The next morning there was just the residue and no eggs. I have a brown heron visiting for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I no longer fill my pond with goldfish as he is a very successful feeder! But....did he eat the eggs? I've been searching for tadpoles but no sign of them. Do the frog eggs float on the top of the water till they hatch? Do they drop down to the bottom of the pond? How long does it take for the eggs to hatch? I'm afraid I've lost every little egg. I Really Want Frogs In My Pond! Have you had similar experiences?

Good news .. full article link below.
"The tadpoles first develop in the egg, then they eat the egg case. After this they often seem to disappear - this is because they are so small you don't see them in your big pond. But after a while you will see them swimming around; often you will see them in the warm areas around the edge. They at first eat algae, then they progess on to other plants and then sometimes on to meat - such as worms and daphnia. They will even eat each other!"

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/conker/pond-dip/tadpoles.htm#wild

LOL BeaHive, I love the bubblegum description! Great article, btw. Bedouin, I hope you end up with some tadpoles/frogs. Keep us updated :-). Congrats on the waterlily bud Crimsontsavo! We have a couple small ones forming too…I can’t wait!

It’s business as usual at the pond tonight. This guy's headed to the party

Now theres TWO buds on the same lily! LOL
Ohh, I hope your taddies make it Bedouin!

Whoohoo Crimsontsavo! You must be thrilled :-)

I really am lol. But I keep waiting for the goldfish to eat them. I see him circling like shark. :-O
Oh but to see the blooms. "Drools". LOL

Such nice pictures and beautiful ponds.
BeaHive Your Koi are beautiful and love the Koi Castle. LOL
The article on the tads was very interesting.
So far we only had tadpoles one year, it was very funny because the pump for the birdbath would pick them up and the top of the birdbath was filled with them. Every few hours I would go out and scoop them back into the bottom much to the dislike of the birds that wanted to eat them. LOL I'm hopeful we will have some this year but so far I haven't found any eggs. I'm sure we will have more of a proper habitat when the larger pond go in. I thought I only had two of these guys but today I noticed more have either moved in or I just hadn't seen them all at the same time.

Hey Mom, can I have a friend come to play.

This is a message for Crimsontsavo’s goldfish: back away from the waterlily buds! ;-).

Wow HollyAnn, that’s getting to be a pretty serious frog convention there!

Hollyanns- I love your frogs. It is hard to tell in the photo..but how big are these frogs? They look huge...

They look pretty big to me although they are not as large yet as the big one that I had last year. The concrete edge they are sitting on is 5 inches wide and the larger one is almost hanging out over that. I'm not sure they will stay or lay eggs here it may be to small of a pond to sustain them. We have a good size creek about 1/4 mile if that away. I wonder if they will eat my goldfish? Maybe I better buy more. LOL Maybe I can get an ID.

An interesting article re Tadpoles Beahive, thanks for the link. I've certainly scanned the pond each day but so far no little tadpoles! But as you said, they may still be on the small side and hiding behing my pond pots during the day. I really hope so! I had a nice surprise tonight:

We've not had much rain so I watered my large pots close to the pond, this evening! Lo! Out hopped the Mommy Frog from behind one of the pots! I wonder why she stopped croaking after laying her eggs?? Not a single croak since I found her eggs. Maybe she will find a mate and do her egg laying once again! I certainly hope so.

Happy you found your mommy frog & hope the tadpoles will make an appearance soon. Where's the babies daddy?

HollyAnn invited me over to post my froggie picture, his eyes aren't blue they just showed up in the picture that way.

I was working by my pond yesterday and had 3 frogs talking to each other. If I'm not working in other parts of the yard you will find me sitting by the pond in the summer watching frogs and dragonflies.

BeaHive I think the Daddy has made a beaLine (:)) to far and yonder! Anything to get away from the little brown heron who thinks this is his Daily Restaurant! Saw him this morning eyeing my vines filled with butterfly larvae. Used the hosepipe on him, but he just enjoyed the shower. Directed him back to the pond, but he (she) seems not to understand clear English! :)

LadyGardener I've seen some dragonflies flitting around the pond for the first time in ages. So glad to see them back. I can quite understand your outdoors contemplation with the butterflies, dragon flies and I'm sure birds as well. Nice pond you have there!

This message was edited Apr 24, 2008 2:14 PM

Ribbick today.
If you look really closely you can see my reflection in his eye, lol.

How cool is that.. well nothing in my pond but my little fish and my first waterlily bloom of the year! Yea!

Tammie

Yayyyyyyyyy for lily blooms!!!!!

Great frog shots ladygardener and crimsontsavo! I like your pond ladygardener. Congrats on your first waterlily bloom Tammie :-). What color is it?

Crimsontsavo, That's neat, my frogs wouldn't let me get quite that close.
Lady, Thanks for posting your frog picture.
My pond isn't even close to blooms yet but I'm getting leaves and the water lotus is coming up. Quite a few of my pond plants came from Ladygardener last summer and I was so glad to see them start to reemerge.
Well, basically the same old frogs but now I have four. I don't think those three are being very friendly. LOL

HollyAnn..I just love your frogs! Your pictures really brighten my day.
Must have good fixin's for them to eat in your yard... Bugs..yum..yum!

This message was edited Apr 26, 2008 7:10 PM

LOL HollyAnn. Your frogs look so funny lined up like that! Great shot! I can’t wait for number 5 to show up ;-)

Holly, I mess with my pond alot everyday and talk to them. Sounds silly but they get used to me fast that way.
Last year I had one that would eat out of my hands lol.
Trying that with the bullfrog this year.
Make sure to splash in the water a lot moving stuff around. Theyre smart, soon they will see you are not a threat.

Thanks every one, I really enjoy my little pond. Lilies have not started to show on top of the water yet. I counted 7 frogs today, they were really starting to move around. Got more pictures too.
2 sitting close together. The one is in the dianthus.

2 going to visit Mr. Fake froggie.

And one on Frog Island.