I see there has been concern expressed in certain quarters about a
decline in the English Common Frog population. Well if this year is
any indication we have nothing to worry about. A few weeks ago my
'wildlife' pond surface was completely covered in clumps of spawn and
now the water is absolutely heaving with hatched tadpoles. I've
previously posted here about crows pulling out adult frogs and killing
them. Well they obviously didn't get them all.
After tonight's rain here in Three Valleys Country where we are
suffering a purely bandwagon PR hosepipe ban, I went out to inspect
the growing crops. On my return indoors I found a frog sitting on the
kitchen floor. This fellow had surmounted a high threshold into my
brewery/bakery and then negotiated a step into the kitchen.
There was nothing wrong with his health and fitness. My attempts to
capture him were not initially successful. He jumped out of my hand
and made for the hallway, no doubt intending to get upstairs and
molest my wife, who had gone to bed. His chances would surely have
been better than mine, because as we know they can turn into princes.
Anyway, the next capture attempt was more successful and he was
ejected back into the garden.
I'm normally plagued with enormous slugs. So far this year I haven't
seen a single one. Hopefully they're being snapped up as soon as they
show their slimy faces.

Jupiter wrote in
:

On my return indoors I found a frog sitting on the
kitchen floor. This fellow had surmounted a high threshold into my
brewery/bakery and then negotiated a step into the kitchen.

Pah, that's nothing ;}

My front door is 4 steps up from the concrete driveway,
and is about 20' from any greenery. Twice I've come
home at about 9pm and jumped out of my skin when a frog
jumped off the floor onto the drive.

And I'm sure they'll go much futhur across concrete.

OTOH this year the frogspawn in my pond arrived
a bit early, and a few weeks later "suddenly"
turned into empty sacs. Any idea what might have
caused this? I presume they were eaten, but just
maybe it is something to do with the pond
containing a lot of algae at that time.

The message 7
from Tom Gardner contains these words:


OTOH this year the frogspawn in my pond arrived
a bit early, and a few weeks later "suddenly"
turned into empty sacs. Any idea what might have
caused this?

The black blobs in the middle hatched into tadpoles? This is normal :-)

Janet

In message 7, Tom
Gardner writes
Jupiter wrote in
:

On my return indoors I found a frog sitting on the
kitchen floor. This fellow had surmounted a high threshold into my
brewery/bakery and then negotiated a step into the kitchen.

Pah, that's nothing ;}

My front door is 4 steps up from the concrete driveway,
and is about 20' from any greenery. Twice I've come
home at about 9pm and jumped out of my skin when a frog
jumped off the floor onto the drive.

And I'm sure they'll go much futhur across concrete.

OTOH this year the frogspawn in my pond arrived
a bit early, and a few weeks later "suddenly"
turned into empty sacs. Any idea what might have
caused this? I presume they were eaten, but just
maybe it is something to do with the pond
containing a lot of algae at that time.

It is possible that you have a large number of planarians in the pond.
They are small, leech like, flatworms that will steadily munch their way
through frogspawn. These invertebrates arrived in our pond some years
ago and removed all the embryos from the clumps of spawn for a couple of
years. We now watch out for the spawn to appear, remove it to a couple
of large containers and return the tadpoles to the pond when they have
hatched - so that the newts have got something to eat :-)

--
Robert

Hi everyone,
Changing the subject a little, Do blackbirds usually eat tadpoles? For the
last 2 years we have had a blackbird come and gorge itself on them in the
shallow areas.
thanks,
Mike


"Jupiter" wrote in message
...
I see there has been concern expressed in certain quarters about a
decline in the English Common Frog population. Well if this year is
any indication we have nothing to worry about. A few weeks ago my
'wildlife' pond surface was completely covered in clumps of spawn and
now the water is absolutely heaving with hatched tadpoles. I've
previously posted here about crows pulling out adult frogs and killing
them. Well they obviously didn't get them all.
After tonight's rain here in Three Valleys Country where we are
suffering a purely bandwagon PR hosepipe ban, I went out to inspect
the growing crops. On my return indoors I found a frog sitting on the
kitchen floor. This fellow had surmounted a high threshold into my
brewery/bakery and then negotiated a step into the kitchen.
There was nothing wrong with his health and fitness. My attempts to
capture him were not initially successful. He jumped out of my hand
and made for the hallway, no doubt intending to get upstairs and
molest my wife, who had gone to bed. His chances would surely have
been better than mine, because as we know they can turn into princes.
Anyway, the next capture attempt was more successful and he was
ejected back into the garden.
I'm normally plagued with enormous slugs. So far this year I haven't
seen a single one. Hopefully they're being snapped up as soon as they
show their slimy faces.

Robert wrote in :

It is possible that you have a large number of planarians in the pond.
They are small, leech like, flatworms that will steadily munch their way
through frogspawn.

No idea, but I'll have a look. Thanks for a useful starting point.

These invertebrates arrived in our pond some years
ago and removed all the embryos from the clumps of spawn for a couple of
years. We now watch out for the spawn to appear, remove it to a couple
of large containers and return the tadpoles to the pond when they have
hatched - so that the newts have got something to eat :-)

That was last year's experience

But then I've got a soft spot for newts anyway

In message 8, Tom
Gardner writes
Robert wrote in :

It is possible that you have a large number of planarians in the pond.
They are small, leech like, flatworms that will steadily munch their way
through frogspawn.

No idea, but I'll have a look. Thanks for a useful starting point.

These invertebrates arrived in our pond some years
ago and removed all the embryos from the clumps of spawn for a couple of
years. We now watch out for the spawn to appear, remove it to a couple
of large containers and return the tadpoles to the pond when they have
hatched - so that the newts have got something to eat :-)

That was last year's experience

But then I've got a soft spot for newts anyway

The worms are very small ~ 10mm long and 1mm wide, brown to black in
colour. One way to check is to drop a small piece of raw chicken into
the pond where you can see it - if the flatworms are present they will
appear within minutes and head for the meat.

--
Robert

Robert writes
In message 8, Tom
Gardner writes
Robert wrote in :

It is possible that you have a large number of planarians in the pond.
They are small, leech like, flatworms that will steadily munch their way
through frogspawn.

No idea, but I'll have a look. Thanks for a useful starting point.

These invertebrates arrived in our pond some years
ago and removed all the embryos from the clumps of spawn for a couple of
years. We now watch out for the spawn to appear, remove it to a couple
of large containers and return the tadpoles to the pond when they have
hatched - so that the newts have got something to eat :-)

That was last year's experience

But then I've got a soft spot for newts anyway

The worms are very small ~ 10mm long and 1mm wide, brown to black in
colour. One way to check is to drop a small piece of raw chicken into
the pond where you can see it - if the flatworms are present they will
appear within minutes and head for the meat.

Just how many do you need for it to be a problem? We have them in all
our ponds, at the level where turning over any stone will reveal about 4
or 5 of them. But the effect on frogspawn is unnoticeably tiny (the
spawn immediately after hatching is a writhing mass of mini-tadpoles)
and we produce baby newts in good numbers.
--
Kay

In message , K
writes
Robert writes
In message 8, Tom
Gardner writes
Robert wrote in :

It is possible that you have a large number of planarians in the pond.
They are small, leech like, flatworms that will steadily munch their way
through frogspawn.

No idea, but I'll have a look. Thanks for a useful starting point.

These invertebrates arrived in our pond some years
ago and removed all the embryos from the clumps of spawn for a couple of
years. We now watch out for the spawn to appear, remove it to a couple
of large containers and return the tadpoles to the pond when they have
hatched - so that the newts have got something to eat :-)

That was last year's experience

But then I've got a soft spot for newts anyway

The worms are very small ~ 10mm long and 1mm wide, brown to black in
colour. One way to check is to drop a small piece of raw chicken into
the pond where you can see it - if the flatworms are present they will
appear within minutes and head for the meat.

Just how many do you need for it to be a problem? We have them in all
our ponds, at the level where turning over any stone will reveal about
4 or 5 of them. But the effect on frogspawn is unnoticeably tiny (the
spawn immediately after hatching is a writhing mass of mini-tadpoles)
and we produce baby newts in good numbers.

Unfortunately we have hundreds of them in a smallish pond. We mucked
out the pond three years ago in an effort to get rid of them but to no
avail. I will try and get an image of one later this week and put it
online.

--
Robert