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Frogs 2022

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chubsta View Drop Down
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    Posted: 14 Feb 2022 at 9:31pm
Weather has been wet and mild for the last few nights - about 8degrees, and am seeing a lot of frogs in the pond, more than expected for the time of year. Exact numbers are hard to guess given they are often hiding in the plants and I rely on a CCTV camera to see them but there have been at least 50 pairs of eyes counted at any one time which is many more than normal for this time of year.

On a side note, on a sunny warm day last week I saw 9 juvenile newts sunning themselves in the blanket wee that still remains at one end of the pond so it looks like the pond is starting to come back to life, unfortunately we have only had one frost so far so the duckweed hasn't been killed off so that will be a problem again in the summer.
Not sure if the weather will stay warm long enough for some spawn but here's hoping.

At our other house we have a very small pond for the last few years which is gradually maturing, it has a 'resident' frog who turned up naturally but we have transplanted spawn the last couple of years so hopefully will have some returnees this year.


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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Feb 2022 at 11:50am
Not bad for two days work...


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Suzi View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Mar 2022 at 10:59am
How did the spawn do? Lots of taddies?
As I've mentioned before newts will eat all my spawn given the chance. I took the decision to hand rear it all again this time, knowing it is a commitment. I bought an 80 litre black plastic horse trough and put some taddies in there - after 'hatching' them in my greenhouse in builders' buckets. I have three buckets on the go in there and the trough outside. I feed them boiled minced lettuce. I had a dozen clumps of spawn. 
The greenhouse tadpoles I set up a shade system (carboard boxes flattened) so they only got an hour or two of sun in the morning. I knew the water would green up otherwise - also overheat. I keep the greenhouse fully ventilated all day, also to keep the temp down. 
The trough is in the shade and the taddies in there are much smaller - almost half sized to the greenhouse ones. 
Today I decided many of the greenhouse taddies are pond ready as they are too big for newt mouths. So I will be acclimatising them to the cooler outdoors and then into the ponds they'll go.

Suz
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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Apr 2022 at 12:09pm
Plenty of tadpoles, all are getting very fat but will be interesting to see how they fare with the bad weather - there is currently about 3 inches of snow on top of the pond so hopefully they will just drop to the bottom and be happy.

You are certainly putting the effort in - I am surprised that newts would have such an impact, I have a few in my pond (although hopefully a lot more this year as I saw lots of juveniles last autumn in the shallow water) but have never noticed any impact on the frog spawn at all.
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Suzi View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 May 2022 at 11:07pm
Yes Chubsta a bit of work trying to get the taddies large enough to beat anything that will eat them - mainly newts. They start on the spawn as soon as it's laid!
The tads are now in my three ponds and there still seems to be a good number of them. I released hundreds and hundreds. I've never done so well with them before. 

Suz
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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 May 2022 at 7:52pm
Good news! Hopefully they will thrive outside as the weather seems consistently nice so far.

I haven't seen many in my pond but it has totally been overtaken by algae and is now like soup - I am guessing they are still there, just well hidden.
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