The close up... Say cheese....
What lives in or near your Pond
Do feral cats count? I live near the city but in the country in a wooded area so a lot of cats and dogs seem to find their way here. Had a mom cat last year and three of the kits are still hanging around. I do leave a bowl of food every morning, just could not bear the thought of them starving. Anyway, they hang out by the pond and watch the fish and I can see them drinking from time to time. Have a pastel tortie and two yellow tabbies. The two yellow tabbies allow me to pet them if they are in the mood.
Of course cats count. Good thing you feed them or they might eat the fish!
We had 85 deg temp today and my frog started working on his summer tan. He was just relaxing by the lily pad..soaking up some rays...
The koi were very active today with the warm weather. They just had a good-old time swimming most of the day away!
These are just such delightful photos. Thank you everyone for posting them. I'm hoping my tadpole will let me see him soon! Cant understand why he has not been visible and I dont want to go messing around in the pond again in case I hurt him/her. Soon, hopefully, I too will have a little pic to post!
How about my silly dog! She is a hunting dog and all last week she was "pointing" the KOI and whenever I wasn't around she was in the pond trying to "paw" the fish.
Happy to say that for the past 3 days she hasn't been in the pond or pointing the KOI. I think she has gotten used to them and doesn't want to be yelled at to "leave it". Whatever happened, it is a good thing. I can finally relax and have her around the pond on her electric fence without supervision and she has already chased away a pair of ducks two times. She's been a very good girl!
My frog is still enjoying the warm weather. Working on a complete
body tan today!! He is so cute. I was watering around the pond this
morning and spraying him.He loved it. Just sat there and enjoyed the spray!
I have a frog question and hope someone on here can answer it. Do the frogs have a high pierced, shrill mating call? This has went on for 2 nights, it so loud. It's not a pretty "ribbit, ribbit". I'm hoping it stops soon or maybe just not as often. It starts and last about 15 second, stops for about 5, then they do it again. It sounds like it's about 3 or 4 frogs. It goes on all night, I've had to close the windows just to sleep.
Yeah, I think my toads do that,lol.
From what I have read, different types of frogs must have distinctive egg layering (long lines of eggs or an egg placed in the middle of a hextagon gel. Maybe even more egg laying designs.
Can anyone tell me what I have please?
Our toads make the shrill sometimes continuous sounds; the frogs make random croaking sounds (sis-in-law thought it sounded like cows!)
I'll have to do some digging for photos of the frog eggs I took last year. Yes, they're is distinctive methods and patterns.
BBL,
~Dawn
You have frogs instead of toads but what kind of frogs I could not tell you.
My guy posing for me today. He is so darn cute!
You’ve got quite the photogenic frog BeaHive! Congrats on your tapoles Bedouin, how neat!
Beahive - he's got the biggest eyes, he is gorgeous.
I caught one of the toad's today. He went to live at a nearby "real" pond. Of course it sounds like I have 3 more out there tonight. Is it mean of me to move them? I'm feeling a little bad about moving the one. Do they eventually get quiet? My pond is at the back of my lot, but kinda close to the neighbors house, she is gonna shoot me.
Crystalnurse, our frogs were incredibly loud until recently. They had a few different types of sounds that they’d make, including the classic “ribbit,” a trilling sound, and a loud almost squawking noise that sounded like someone stepped on a squeaky toy. Now, although they’re still around I only rarely hear a few croaks. I think they figured out their territorial disputes and mating season is over, so they’re settling in for the summer.
Thanks tetleytuna. Frogs not toads! This one is large but photos are difficult to take as I never ever see her during the day.
I found a site on BBC which is toad related. Thought you'd enjoy watching the video. Lots of nature info:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/worldonthemove/species/common-toad/
Here's my security frog. If I can just teach him not to swallow the cat....... Have lost no fish since he's been on duty.
ROFL! Does he have a name? Ours is named Freddie but he just glows in the dark.
morknotmindy..great frog! We pond owners should all have one.
I absolutely love that security frog! We need one of those to ward off the raccoons ;-) Freddie is pretty darn cute too.
Crystalnurse, I’m so glad you’re keeping the toads. They are great for the garden (good slug eaters etc), and hopefully they will mellow out a bit later in the year. Keep us posted.
The real frogs seemed to have settled in for the summer, so no more froggie sightings. Here are my other froggies and one of my turtles
sunny..your pond is lovely and all the critters look very happy at waters edge!
The security frog is named 'Atilla, the Hungry'. Like I said, no fish have disappeared since he's been on the job, however 3 cats have mysteriously vanished leaving me with just 5..... Maybe I need a bigger frog to catch whatever is getting my cats. I like him 'cause he makes me smile and even chuckle once in a while. I have a very small fish pond, maybe a hundred gallons. Probably not that big. There's 2 goldfish, Pete and Repeat, and four misquito (sp?) fish called 'Hey, You Guys', one water Iris and lots of thread moss or whatever it is. My daughter-in-law bought the preformed pond for me, which started me on quite an adventure. After hurriedly deciding where to put it and getting it all set up, I realized I needed a gazebo or some such to sit in and look at the fish. So I got together with my handyman Mike and we come up with a nice design for a structure that was sort of a gazebo, pergola, ramada thing that we called a placebo. Turned out real nice. I had him paint the top part sort of a bluish purple, the posts lime green and the benches ox-blood red. I know, I know, but it looks faboulous! In fact, I liked it so well that I had Mike paint the house that same 'blurple, with lime green trim! With ox-blood red doors! It is so cool. Well, I now have a bar-b-que area that has a slatted lime green top, blurple posts, ox-blood red picnic table and benches, and lots of petunias scattered about. Didn't stop there. The potting shed is now lime green with blurple trim. Next the metal storage shed is getting a makeover. Now I'm thinking I need a bigger pond...... The moral of this is.....Be careful. Be very careful when you get a fish pond. You never know where it will lead you...... Trying to send a pic of fish pond and Socrates, one of the remaining cats.....
MNM, I really love your way with words! Pleeeeze can we see pics of the placebo and other stuff??
I know what you mean about one thing leading to another. I started out to plant a bush of some kind (don't remember any more what it was) and just kept digging until I had a hole that was more or less round and about two feet deep give or take. Put in some feeder goldfish and enjoyed it immensely. The next year we got a round cattle pool at an auction and pretty much buried that for another small pond and then last year came a stream with some small waterfalls that give the appearance of the two being connected. Who knows what will happen this year----
Morknotmindy, I love your Atilla the hungry. The chain is just priceless! I could certainly use him but he'd have to have a club that banged every few minutes to scare the ever hungry heron from the pond. He's already cleaned the entire pond of fish, not once but many times to the point that its utterly devoid of fish (snails still there, and hopefully one little tadpole), The heron still comes morning noon night and even midnight hoping for a free feed! Daft bird!
Hey Everyone..where are the frogs? I have a new one who has joined us a few nights ago. Finally was able to get a photo tonight.
She/he is smaller than my other one who likes his photo taken. This one is a bit shy. She is hiding..she thinks..
I was hard at work yesterday landscaping the Frog pond.
Uh Oh! Trouble in Paradise☺
Here is a pic from yesterday of both the 90gal frog pond and the 1000gal fish pond. I spend more time trying to make it look woodsy out there than I would if I went for a formal garden look☻
Most of my frogs took off for waters unknown. Earlier this spring I had 7 most were good size, they were calling back and forth as I worked near the watergarden. Then we had a rain and my numbers dropped to one big guy and 2 small ones.
This has happen before, I guess I'm just a stop along the way to the creek down the road.
Posy, what timing on your toad and frogs picture. Wonder if toad is going to lay eggs?
Beahive.........peek-a-boo!
Posyblossom........... super pic! I wonder what their thoughts are! Did they come any closer to each other?
My very opaque pond water was cleaned out yesterday. The above pic (19 May) of the eggs which I thought had been eaten by the little grey heron must had dropped to the bottom of the pond a day after being laid. I found I have big, fat tadpoles! About 40 of them! Overwhelming, but I'm SO delighted! They are all in a bucket right now, together with the murky old water, as the new pond water has to sit till mid-day to dissipate the chlorine. Then I'll take a pic of them and post it. I'm so delighted.....
No closer bedouin☺Stretch kept his distance too☺Congrats on all your tads☺
ladygardener1, now that you mention it, I do see eggs on the sides of the pond in the water,but I have no idea if they are frog or toad.Time will tell☺
PS> I have no idea why my pics are coming through so big. I will have to work on an adjustment.. On my puter the pics are not that big. I am pretty new still to digi,but how I love the ease of those micro3 flower button shots☺I cropped this pic,so here it comes............
They seem fine to me posy! Such a cute froggy pair.
I counted 42 tadpole which I've just released into the clean pond. Hope there is enough for them to eat! I took 4 photos but only 1 was 'viewable'. Not terribly clear, but there they are!
Cant understand why the photo did not load. I'll try again
This message was edited May 28, 2008 11:49 AM
tadpoles 42 of them. I released them into the pond so am unable to take more photos of them as a group. Cant understand why 4 of the photos can not be opened on my Photos!
Tadpoles are cute..Hope they grow up to be darling frogs...
Does anyone know where I can get some non bullfrog tadpoles online? I would like frogs and my son would love tadpoles but I don't want giant bullfrogs eating the birds.
Evesta, see if anything here helps: http://tinyurl.com/565fvq