On Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:57:51 -0000, "sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote:


"Janet" wrote in message
...
In article , "sweetheart"
says...

I know there are a couple of frogs in the garden but they haven't come
to
the pond.

Unless you're conducting 24 hour surveillance on both, you don't know
if they are the same two frogs each time or whether they ever go to the
pond. Why not get them tagged with a GPS tracker?

I take it that is meant sarcastically? OK, I'll get it or them tagged! The
fact is

a) there are no frogs in the pond. I have looked
b) there is no spawn in the pond
c) normal activity at this time of year would give me sight of frogs in the
pond ( the pond is outside the sitting room window so I do have a good view
much of the day
d) I know of a frog ( or more) in the greenhouse down the bottom of the
garden around 300 yards away from the pond. I have disturbed him/ her/ them
(if more than one) two or three times clearing things up there. Done this
several times in the last few weeks.
e) I know of a second frog in the waste land at the bottom of the garden -
maybe the same frog. I would like to hope there are two. They do appear to
be different sizes.

So all in all I am well placed to say my frogs are not in the pond. Maybe
not 24 hour surveillance but close. The sad fact is I have lost my frogs
and its because I didn't take care of them. I didn't get rid of the
predators when I saw them in the first instance. I hope others will take
more care.

As I also said, I don't seem to have any newts either and I had a colony of
those too. All taken by 3 2 long giant larvae ( dragon fly). No dragon fly
larvae now though either. I saw to them and I have no qualms about that.

I think you're being too hard on yourself. You created a pond.
Wildlife colonised the pond. Then you decided that wildlife had got
out of balance and corrected it. That was probably the only mistake
you made.

Nature is, at the end of the day, far "stronger" than any of us. We
only tweak her at the edges and congratulate ourselves on a tidy
garden and productive veg patch. But if we stop that tweaking, nature
takes over again very quickly.

Of the thousands of eggs that frogs lay, only a minute proportion will
reach adulthood. Tadpoles eat weaker tadpoles and unhatched eggs. In
my pond, magpies have been going at the spawn this year and I noticed
starlings having a go earlier today. I've had dragon fly larvae in the
pond year by year. I didn't put them there, nature did. Why do you
think frogs lay so many eggs? Because nature dictates they do, so that
enough live to maturity and the rest provide the food source for
others. Who said nature isn't cruel?

So whether you have frogs in your pond or not, dragon fly larvae or
not, newts or not, you can congratulate yourself on providing a little
space in your garden for nature to utilise as she sees fit from year
to year.

Just take it as it comes. If conditions are right, frogs and
everything else will be back. Whatever the "everything else" is in
your pond, let it be and enjoy it. That's what nature is all about.

Cheers
Jake