Allotments 4 All
Produce => Ponds 'n' Stuff => Topic started by: Garden Manager on January 23, 2008, 16:15:13
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I was amazed and delighted yeaterday when i discovered a huge clump of frogspawn in my pond. I could not beleive my eyes, particularly when you consider it is only january. Quite recently laid too, it was not there on sunday when i did a bit of maintainance on the pond. I didnt even know there were any frogs around, since i havent seen any around for months. Now looks like we might have quite a few.
It is a bit worrying to get spawn so early, but i guess its been so mild that the poor frogs thought it was spring already. I just hope that the next cold snap isnt too cold and kills the spawn off. I wish there wa something I could do to protect it from cold weather but you cant exacly stick a bit of fleece ofer the pond like you could a plant in the border!
Has anyone else got spawn in their pond, or seen/heard signs of frogs 'courting' in the garden?
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Congratulation Richard on the new inhabitants of your pond. It seems very early to have frogspawn already, as I somehow feel there is an awful lot more winter to contend with yet. They can freeze though and survive if the weather does get bad.
We were quite late last year, and at the earliest it would be the end of next month before we would see some, but that makes me think I should be rushing out to the garden to clear our pond in readiness just in case they are going to be early this year.
Let's keep this thread going so we can keep abreast of frogspawn around the country. :) busy_lizzie
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how incredible. Wonder when ours will appear. Have you reported it on the BBC site ?
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nothing here, we had some early spawn last year, it all died off in the cold..mind you, they made up for it later ;D
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Got some in Devon. About 3 weeks earlier than last year.
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nothing here, we had some early spawn last year, it all died off in the cold..mind you, they made up for it later ;D
Really ?
I saw a program on the BBC last year and they showed frogs in the cairngorms spawning and mating in a pond surrounded by snow.
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yes, only one lump but it was in january, quite close to the surface..maybe it got eaten ? :)
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When i first found the spawn it was on top of a marginal plant basket and half sticking out of the water (someone must've been in a hurry!). I carefully moved it into deeper water, so it didnt dry out or get attacked by birds. Speaking of which i understand frogspawn can get predated by birds, not just water birds but land ones as well (if they can get to it). I think blackbirds can be partial to a bit of frogspawn, but I could be wrong there.
When you say report it on the BBC website, I take it you mean the Springwatch site?
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When i first found the spawn it was on top of a marginal plant basket and half sticking out of the water (someone must've been in a hurry!). I carefully moved it into deeper water, so it didnt dry out or get attacked by birds. Speaking of which i understand frogspawn can get predated by birds, not just water birds but land ones as well (if they can get to it). I think blackbirds can be partial to a bit of frogspawn, but I could be wrong there.
When you say report it on the BBC website, I take it you mean the Springwatch site?
No it was the Alan Titmarsh program nature of Britain. He went to the wilderness areas of the UK.
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I have frogspawn in my pond for the very first time, though I've had the pond for several years. It arrived last Tuesday and I'm so hoping we don't get a frosty spell here in the southwest. It would be lovely to see taddies eventually.
Tricia
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It was delightful seeing a little frog take a flying leap into our pond last week when I frightened it walking by.
We're supposed to have cold weather into the 20s coming but they seem to be tough little critters.
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No sign here but keeping my fingers crossed. Pond constructed last May and we did see a frog jumping in to escape from OH during last summer so can only hope we'll have our very first tads this spring.
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Sure you will Jill. I am down South but mine always seem to spawn later than anyone else's. But it is exciting when you see it.
Sinbad
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Do fish eat frogspawn? My clump seems to have disappeared, though the toadspawn is still evident.
Tricia
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I am a bit concerned about mine with all these frosts. I know you said the spawn was really hardy and tough but at least some of mine get stuck on the ice on the surface every night at the moment. Surely this cant do them any good?
I read in AG magazine this week that if you have frogspawn and the pond looks like freezing you should take some out, put it in a bucket of pond water and keep it in a cool but frost free place until the cold snap has passed. i did think about doing this but it seems a bit OTT to me. Besides it seems a bit late now we have had sharp frosts several nights running.
Has anyone 'rescued' frogspawn like this during frosty weather?
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Hi tricia,
The fish, well my fish don't eat frogspawn they wait by it for the little taddies to wriggle out then they eat them.
Sometimes the frogspawn drops down deeper into the pond but don't know anything that actually eats the spawn.
Sinbad
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Never rescued a spawn in me life. And we'll be swarming with frogs and toads by Spring- they make a deafening racket and sometimes wish there were fewer. Owls and cats eat them and still they march along.
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got the first little clump in my pond and it looks like the frogs are busy making more. I can see them through the window but if I go anywhere near they just dive down
GA my pond is in a cold part of the garden and gets badly iced up but every year I have loads of frogs so I don,t think it needs rescuing. I havn,t any fish as I heard they eat taddys and cannot have that as I love my frogs
marg
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The problem is Marg, taddies eat taddies, so no different to the fish eating them really. It's all part of the food chain I guess.
Sinbad
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The problem is Marg, taddies eat taddies, so no different to the fish eating them really. It's all part of the food chain I guess.
Sinbad
this is very true1 in previous years I have felt very protective about my little clump of spawn but I,m looking at my (very) little pond now and it,s chock full of frogs
mmm doing what frogs do lol I am worried how much spawn there will be
as you say eating each other is natures way
marg
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a
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oops! don't know what happened there..
Saw a large frog in our pond, but no love songs heard yet ;)
He/She is in the larger pond which has koi carp. Last years spawn vanished, so i am assuming the carp
ate it.
This year, will be transferring some of the spawn into the small fish-free pond which is next to it
Debs ;)
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got the first little clump in my pond and it looks like the frogs are busy making more. I can see them through the window but if I go anywhere near they just dive down
GA my pond is in a cold part of the garden and gets badly iced up but every year I have loads of frogs so I don,t think it needs rescuing. I havn,t any fish as I heard they eat taddys and cannot have that as I love my frogs
marg
Goldfish and tadpoles go well together. We don't grow koi (hubby calls them "investment fish" ;D) because of great blue herons visiting. We just started with "feeder fish" little goldfish that folks buy to feed their bigger fish. Started with 5 and they've duplicated to 22 though a few are brown so not sure how they arrived. Despite that number of fish (which we don't feed) the number of frogs and toads is HUGE. As someone said, the tadpoles eat their own and the biggest one wins. A good thing or it would be The Plague of the Frogs all over again.
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this little pond is near the front of the house so we can see all the activity but yesterday I left a window open in our bedroom and the noise woke us up at 2 in the morning looked out and there they were heads out and throats going I,v never noticed this before I am expecting the neighbours to complain lucky we all have double glazing ::)
marg
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It would serve my neighbours right for being so noisy....................................did I say that out loud? oops.
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Went out a couple of weeks ago to look at our pond and there was a frog swimming around in it. Thought it was the start but then it disappeared and there has been no activity, but just gone out to check, and we have frog spawn and the ponds is full of frogs. Must have just happened within the last few days because I checked only recently. Now have two big clumps of spawn - such a lovely sight to see.
We have had frozen frog spawn before and they have hatched out okay, so I would tend to leave things and let Mother Nature deal with it. I always think it is officially spring when I see the frogs have been busy. Didn't hear the usual grunting and croaking though which is usually a sign. :) busy_lizzie
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I have just found forgspawn in one of my tiny ponds for the first time. I have two ponds made from half barrels and always thought they were too small for spawn, although I knew we had two frogs. I'll ad this to my things in the garden to worry about, will it survive, have I done all I can to help it along etc. I will also really enjoy it too. Since creating the garden three years ago I have been doing everything possible to bring in wildlife and I now feel I am getting the rewards.
I heard the frog singing the other night, when outside with a fire and I was worried he would go unrequited. I am very pleased he did not. I have always been concerned the frogs are rather trapped in my garden because I have made the fences very secure to keep in my rabbits. I will not worry so much now because it seems they have what they need to go about their business!
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Welcome to the boards Ikennea - some of the forums are real wacky, but you'll always get a serious answer to a serious question. I've had lots of good advice over the years.
Happy for you that you have frogspawn. I had some a month ago, but in the meantime my fish must have been very hungry 'cos it's all disappeared :(. I'm still hopeful that I'll get some more, though I just opened the patio doors and couldn't hear any blissful croaking tonight.
Plenty of time yet...............
Tricia
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Frogspawn in my pond 3 nights ago! Thats a first........so early. And they were singing their hearts out again tonight.........soooooo sweet! ;D ;D
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taken through my front window. a orgy here is just two come up for air
(http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i229/theothermarg/frogs27208.jpg)
marg
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taken through my front window. a orgy here is just two come up for air
(http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i229/theothermarg/frogs27208.jpg)
marg
Marg: the Peeping Tom
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Just how hardy is frogspawn? I have read conflicting reports about it, some say it is tough and can withstand a bit of frost, others say that one sharp frost can kill it off, even that quite deep in the pond and clear of surface ice.
I was concerned that the sharp frosts we hav a couple of weeks ago had killed mine off, but there signs of at least some of it surviving and starting to grow.
So what is the truth of the matter?
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I was reading a doom ridden piece in the mail which reckoned a sharp frost would kill the spawn, this is complete nonsence as the spawn in my pond has been encased in ice and still turned into hundreds of tadpoles
I was worried about the frogs last week as I could see them swimming beneath the ice I tried (carfully) breaking it but it refroze instantly, as you can see they are alive and well
marg
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Frogspawn in our allotment pond on Wednesday 27 Feb; last year the first lot was on 24 February. Have been keeping records for about 18 years and the usual date for frogspawn is around 10 March. So far only four lots, last year we ended up with over 60 lots.
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Frogspawn in our allotment pond on Wednesday 27 Feb; last year the first lot was on 24 February. Have been keeping records for about 18 years and the usual date for frogspawn is around 10 March. So far only four lots, last year we ended up with over 60 lots.
60! Makes my 3 look pitiful. yet it seems a lot for my small pond. How big is your pond by the way?
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Our allotment wildlife pond is about 10ft x 7ft and about 18" deep. 60 lots was really far too much but 'big tadpole eats little tadpole' and the pond life remained healthy! We have a huge number of frogs on our allotment, we were clearing an overgrown area of years of accumulated old compost bags, old lino, plant material etc at the end of November last year and there were frogs everywhere, ranging from large ones to what were probably 2007's babies - all were moved to new homes in a nearby compost heap. We only made our allotment pond in October 2004 but in the very first spring it attracted lots of frogs. My frog spawn earliest date records before Spring 2005 were from my small garden pond (now filled in due to the arrival of grandchildren and the danger of even small garden ponds to 'tinies').
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Have frog spawn in my little pond (only 2) but pond only an upside down bin lid.
Will have to feed again when they are tadpoles with cat food. They did very well on it last year. Not enough natural food in my little pond to substain too many tapoles.
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My pond was 1 year old two weeks ago and today I have my first 2 lumps of frogspawn. Yippee.
Its strange that they have left my small wildlife pond alone and jumped in my bigger raised pond.
I will have to remove most of the spawn or my fish will eat them.
Just been out and seen two frogs swimming about. Do they mate once or over a few nights?. Never had a pond before so its all new.
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frogspawn has arrived in Wigan..not in our pond, in a big puddle ;D
we've moved a big bucketfull in to the pond now ;D
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Noticed frog spawn in our pond which has fish in about 3 days ago. We also have some frogssporn given to us by my father which I will keep in the house untill it turns into frogs with the aim of preventing the fish eating the tadpoles.
My husband who has been away said when he saw it was to ensure the frogs are put outside before they start leaping about the house as they did one year !
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just found this thread and find it very interesting, my wife made our little allotment pond at the end of 2006 and I put in loads of toad spawn from the local trout pool last spring and fed the tadpoles on wheatgerm I had for the goldfish at home , they all matured but have seen none since they left the pond . I was hoping they would return this year to mate but none yet but do have loads of frog spawn that arrived three weeks ago yet never seen a frog!!
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Boo hoo still no frog spawn. Caught a wandering frog in the street out front the other day, carried it through the house and put it on the edge of the pond but still nowt.
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Boo hoo still no frog spawn. Caught a wandering frog in the street out front the other day, carried it through the house and put it on the edge of the pond but still nowt.
go and look for another frog I think it may take two (or more lol)
marg
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Absolutely heaps of spawn in my garden pond since last week...only just found this thread :) We have heaps n heaps of frogs come back every year now :)
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well I've had four lots of spawn now. Two lots laid on the 1st of march and two more laid on the 16th.
When I got the first two I put one lot of spawn in my wildlife pond which is only tiny.
The spawn in the wildlife pond has not matured its still round black blobs. It still looks ok though.
The spawn left in my pond look like mini taddies and soon will hatch. I will leave them all alone and
see what happens. There fascinating to watch grow up so will have to remember to take lots of photos
this time around.
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:'( :'( :'(
I think I have lost all mine. A couple of sharp frosts about 2 weeks ago mustv'e finished them off.
Understandable really. It was laid far too early. Thats the problem climate change seems to be bringing. A mild spring like spell in mid winter (like the mild january we had) tricks wildlife into thinking it is spring. then winter bites back and gives many of the plants and animals a massive shock.
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We have mounds of spawn, the first time in our new bigger pond but this cold cold weather worries me. The pond is quite sheltered so fingers and toes crossed.
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Where can i possibly get frog spawn, short of nicking some from somewhere :o :o :o.
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When i first found the spawn it was on top of a marginal plant basket and half sticking out of the water (someone must've been in a hurry!). I carefully moved it into deeper water, so it didnt dry out or get attacked by birds. Speaking of which i understand frogspawn can get predated by birds, not just water birds but land ones as well (if they can get to it). I think blackbirds can be partial to a bit of frogspawn, but I could be wrong there.
When you say report it on the BBC website, I take it you mean the Springwatch site?
i have newts a plenty,but the frogs seem to have desserted me do they return?
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Our frogs over winter under the muck in the bottom of the pond. Saw a big one drying off on a cold rock today. Yours will probably reappear soon. a great blue heron flew over today and they'll eat the frogs- Gulp! but there never seems to be a shortage. We haven't seen any spawn yet.