In article , Gaz
writes
Hi,

I want to get new liner for my existing pond and reshape it completely
after being inspired by Alan Titchmarsh last week. This would mean
draining the pond, putting the frogs, plants and any inhabitants I
find into containers while I rebuild the pond, and then putting the
inhabitants back in. Hopefully this will only take a day but I suspect
it will take ages for the water to drain or be taken away in buckets.

When is the best time of year to do this? I just can't decide because
there never seems to be an less destructive time of year to do it. In
winter all the frogs are hibernating in the mud, in spring all the
frogspawn is everywhere and aquatic life is beginning to get a
foothold, in summer there is too much aquatic life at stake! Perhaps
autumn is best because everything is slowly dying down but nothing is
hiberating that early.

Frogspawn is fairly robust, so once frogs have finished mating but
before you have the first tadpoles ... though IME that period is about
1hr long ;-)

Autumn you may still have the last of the taddies and baby frogs around.
But at least the water is warm. Winter doesn't bear thinking about.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm