For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond. The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year! But the total absence of toad spawn puzzles us very
much. Has anyone else experienced that this year? After such a mild winter
it seems very peculiar. Will they arrive later/soon/never? Any ideas from
anyone?
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

Sacha wrote:

For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond. The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year!

Are you sure you're on the right group and not fishing for a recipe
instead? I'm sure you could do something with the spawn if you don't
have the patience to wait for the frogs/toads...
g, d&r


Greg

--

Have you ever really considered how much your buildings actually weigh?

No ficus = no spam

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond.
The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year! But the total absence of toad spawn puzzles us very
much. Has anyone else experienced that this year? After such a mild
winter
it seems very peculiar. Will they arrive later/soon/never? Any ideas
from
anyone?
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

Our toads usually lay theirs down deep so we never see the spawn just the
little black tadpoles later, but like you no frog spawn to be seen, same as
last year but we had plenty of tadpoles last year frog and toad, so I am
guessing that if the frogs think it may be cold they too go deeper and our
toads are always weeks later than the frogs.
Your visiting Heron may well have had some adults but I did not realise they
would take spawn.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea

On 1/4/07 00:59, in article ,
"Gregoire Kretz" wrote:

Sacha wrote:

For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond. The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year!

Are you sure you're on the right group and not fishing for a recipe
instead? I'm sure you could do something with the spawn if you don't
have the patience to wait for the frogs/toads...
g, d&r

Is this is what's meant by being a turncoat?! ;-))

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

On 1/4/07 08:46, in article , "Charlie
Pridham" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond.
The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year! But the total absence of toad spawn puzzles us very
much. Has anyone else experienced that this year? After such a mild
winter
it seems very peculiar. Will they arrive later/soon/never? Any ideas
from
anyone?
--

Our toads usually lay theirs down deep so we never see the spawn just the
little black tadpoles later, but like you no frog spawn to be seen, same as
last year but we had plenty of tadpoles last year frog and toad, so I am
guessing that if the frogs think it may be cold they too go deeper and our
toads are always weeks later than the frogs.

I hope there is some further down but so far, there's no sign of it. Of
course, our trouble is the number of fish in that pond, so if we do get tads
we want to move some to the wildlife pond. But usually we see the strings
of toad spawn quite easily and after all, the winter has been pretty mild.
We now have 3 largeish ponds in the garden, so we're certainly doing our bit
for the amphibian world!

Your visiting Heron may well have had some adults but I did not realise they
would take spawn.

We're assuming that's what happened, though nobody actually saw it happen.
Ray saw the heron on the front lawn by the new pond there but while it could
grab any fish silly enough to swim to the edge, there's no way it could wade
into that pond. Next morning when he went out to the 'old' fishpond he
chased the heron off, all the fish had gone into hiding and a very large
clump of spawn was missing, so the evidence piles up. ;-)
BTW, hope you didn't get the gales we suffered last night. The wind was so
strong we were expecting to hear the crash of the last macrocarpa in the
church yard going over and it made sleep very difficult.
We're going to Tresco for a few days after Easter and I heard from Mike
Nelhams the other day that they've had a lot of gale and salt damage this
winter but "there's still loads to see", thank goodness!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

On Sun, 1 Apr 2007 10:47:50 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :

On 1/4/07 08:46, in article , "Charlie
Pridham" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond.
The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year!
snip

Our toads usually lay theirs down deep so we never see the spawn just the
little black tadpoles later, but like you no frog spawn to be seen, same as
last year but we had plenty of tadpoles last year frog and toad, so I am
guessing that if the frogs think it may be cold they too go deeper and our
toads are always weeks later than the frogs.

I hope there is some further down but so far, there's no sign of it. Of
course, our trouble is the number of fish in that pond, so if we do get tads
we want to move some to the wildlife pond. But usually we see the strings
of toad spawn quite easily and after all, the winter has been pretty mild.
We now have 3 largeish ponds in the garden, so we're certainly doing our bit
for the amphibian world!

Your visiting Heron may well have had some adults but I did not realise they
would take spawn.

We're assuming that's what happened, though nobody actually saw it happen.
Ray saw the heron on the front lawn by the new pond there but while it could
grab any fish silly enough to swim to the edge, there's no way it could wade
into that pond. Next morning when he went out to the 'old' fishpond he
chased the heron off, all the fish had gone into hiding and a very large
clump of spawn was missing, so the evidence piles up. ;-)

We have the opposite experience :-) An absolutely bumper year for frogspawn
and hundreds of tadpoles all milling round now, and we have seen toadspawn
this year for the first time in this pond.

Do you have wild ducks in the area Sacha? In our experience they will come
for a tasty breakfast when the frogspawn is around, and they may be the
culprits. We protected our frogspawn by a corrugated plastic sheet just laid
over the edge (not touching the water in other words) and held down with
bricks overnight when a bad frost was forecast, and now have a piece of
chicken wire again just over the edge to protect them from ducks. Once they
swim away from where they have hatched, they will have plenty of places to
lurk.

Your fish may of course also be the culprits; we have no fish in our wildlife
pond to predate on the spawn or tadpoles.



--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

On 1/4/07 12:25, in article
, "Sally Thompson"
wrote:

On Sun, 1 Apr 2007 10:47:50 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :
snip have had some adults but I did not realise they
would take spawn.

We're assuming that's what happened, though nobody actually saw it happen.
Ray saw the heron on the front lawn by the new pond there but while it could
grab any fish silly enough to swim to the edge, there's no way it could wade
into that pond. Next morning when he went out to the 'old' fishpond he
chased the heron off, all the fish had gone into hiding and a very large
clump of spawn was missing, so the evidence piles up. ;-)

We have the opposite experience :-) An absolutely bumper year for frogspawn
and hundreds of tadpoles all milling round now, and we have seen toadspawn
this year for the first time in this pond.

Do you have wild ducks in the area Sacha? In our experience they will come
for a tasty breakfast when the frogspawn is around, and they may be the
culprits. We protected our frogspawn by a corrugated plastic sheet just laid
over the edge (not touching the water in other words) and held down with
bricks overnight when a bad frost was forecast, and now have a piece of
chicken wire again just over the edge to protect them from ducks. Once they
swim away from where they have hatched, they will have plenty of places to
lurk.

No, I've never seen wild ducks round here and our Call Ducks took themselves
off last year and haven't returned, so they're not to blame! The only thing
we can do fish-wise is move some to the other pond and take some tads, if we
find any, to the wildlife pond that has no fish. That's where the ducks
used to be and we decided to make it a fish free zone! I'm surprised no
frogs or toads have spawned in that but perhaps they take some time to learn
where a new pond is.

Your fish may of course also be the culprits; we have no fish in our wildlife
pond to predate on the spawn or tadpoles.

We're pretty sure the fish are what eats the tads because there isn't really
anything else to do it. On top of the other the fish stocks have increased
a lot since I first knew this place 8 years ago. They're obviously very
happy and breeding well. But at one time there would be scores of tads at
the edge of the pond, nibbling away at the weed. ;-(
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

On Apr 1, 12:59 am, (Gregoire Kretz) wrote:
Sacha wrote:
For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond. The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year!

Are you sure you're on the right group and not fishing for a recipe
instead? I'm sure you could do something with the spawn if you don't
have the patience to wait for the frogs/toads...
g, d&r

Greg

--

Have you ever really considered how much your buildings actually weigh?

No ficus = no spam

Hi Greg, what a surprise to see you here!! Welcome to urg. As you
can see Sacha is quite an expert on this group and you can understand
after growing all the stuff, why she is in the other group getting
tips on how to utilise it - it's time we had a joint urg/food group
dinner party!!!

Urg is a nice group with the odd flutter from a couple of nasties but
they wind their necks in after they are ignored by the more well
respected old timers here.

There is a hard core of very knowledgable people here, both men and
women (I do not consider myself to be anything but a bumbling amateur)
and if they can't find an answer to a posting, then it doesn't exist.

I hope you will stay around here and I know for sure that they will
all welcome you here.

Judith

On 1/4/07 12:47, in article
,
" wrote:

On Apr 1, 12:59 am, (Gregoire Kretz) wrote:
Sacha wrote:
For the first time ever, we have absolutely no toad spawn in our pond. The
frog spawn has either been killed by frost or taken by a heron, so this is
NOT our best year!

Are you sure you're on the right group and not fishing for a recipe
instead? I'm sure you could do something with the spawn if you don't
have the patience to wait for the frogs/toads...
g, d&r

Greg

--

Have you ever really considered how much your buildings actually weigh?

No ficus = no spam

Hi Greg, what a surprise to see you here!! Welcome to urg. As you
can see Sacha is quite an expert on this group and you can understand
after growing all the stuff, why she is in the other group getting
tips on how to utilise it - it's time we had a joint urg/food group
dinner party!!!

Well, you can bring the wine........ ;-) I'm not cooking for such a
daunting barrage of experts, so I'll supply the flowers for the table!

Urg is a nice group with the odd flutter from a couple of nasties but
they wind their necks in after they are ignored by the more well
respected old timers here.

There is a hard core of very knowledgable people here, both men and
women (I do not consider myself to be anything but a bumbling amateur)
and if they can't find an answer to a posting, then it doesn't exist.

I hope you will stay around here and I know for sure that they will
all welcome you here.

Yup.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

wrote:

Hi Greg, what a surprise to see you here!!

Not really, well for me anyway: I like gardening and was wondering what
you nice gardeners were up to.
Of course I have to restrain myself now: moving into a flat meant
leaving the garden behind so there's so much I can grow before we need
Indiana Jones to reach the balcony.


it's time we had a joint urg/food group dinner party!!!

Sounds good, we can show what we grew and how we cooked it - and be
unsufferably smug in the process.


Urg is a nice group with the odd flutter from a couple of nasties but
they wind their necks in after they are ignored by the more well
respected old timers here.

Looks nice enough from what I've read so far.


I hope you will stay around here and I know for sure that they will
all welcome you here.

Thanks!
I promise I'll behave. Or at least try to. Sometimes.


Greg

--

Have you ever really considered how much your buildings actually weigh?

No ficus = no spam