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David in Normandy[_8_] · 27-07-2012, 08:23 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 27/07/2012 20:09, Janet wrote:
In article ,
am says...

On 27/07/2012 18:07, Jake wrote:
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

No nearby ponds, but this morning while mowing the orchard lawn I
accidentally mowed a frog. One of my chickens spotted the carnage and
grabbed a frog's leg, running away with it in her beak, hotly pursued by
the other chickens wanting to steal her tasty morsel!

Seems chickens eat just about anything.

Ours used to specially look for and enjoy, nests of fieldmice.

At our last place I noticed the chickens running about in a frenzy,
feeding, and found they were hunting and stuffing their faces with
froglets the size of my thumb nail. The froglets had not hatched
anywhere on our 4 acres or the surrounding area; I think they had been
washed down a field drain that opened on our patch. The same field drain
(when dry) once delivered a large white ferret:-)

Ah! That's good to know. I've got problems with mice living in the
vegetable garden. There are lots of holes in the ground around 1 1/2
inches diameter. The mice have been a plague and I think they have been
responsible for eating small bean seedlings amongst other things. I
accidentally dug up a mouse nest with the rotovator the other year,
several young inside it. I've been letting the chickens roam free in the
vegetable garden the last few days... hopefully they may rid me of some
of these pests.