• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Journal How not to build a wildlife pond...

My pond at home used to be crawling with frogs (we caught over a hundred when replacing the liner 7-8 years ago) but half of them go next door and lay their frogspawn in next doors ceramic sinks. I added a large wildlife header pond to my existing pond as I have fish in that and even though it looks like a amphibians dream and there were frogs in it from day 1, we had no spawn in there. The fish pond and next doors sinks we full however so we did a bit of moving about.
 
Iain, Frogs will aim for the pond which is "ready" first, assuming there are no physical barriers. I think it's something to do with Glycolic acid. Either way, it's whatever scent algae produce, the frogs instinctively know that this the larvae's first food. During a pond rescue I watched frogs spawn in the rainfilled tracks of construction ( destruction really ) vehicles which were full of green algae despite the pond a few yards away being their historic spawning site. I've seen them spawn in househould grates where there has been algae growing on the clay top. The trick is to site the pond in full sun. A well known surveyor of Great crested newt sites used to regularly report a pond as S.O.D. Shaded out, dead. HTH.
Well that could explain it then as the water is largely gin clear, no algae and half is completely shaded by the fence. I realised after building it I should have pulled it 3ft further out simply as accessing any plants at the back requires wet feet, seems like a lack of frogs could be a byproduct of poor placement. Live and learn

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Hi all,
that heather is stunning
It is, I was admiring the Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) as well.
The trick is to site the pond in full sun.
They do, frogs like a shallow area in full sun to spawn in.

Permanent ponds are rarely any good for frogs because of the newts, dragonfly larvae etc. eat the tadpoles.

Years go some-one gave me a bucket of rescued frog-spawn/tadpoles for one of the ponds at work, it was before all the chytrid problems and advice not too translocate frog-spawn etc. I tipped into the larger pond, which was quite weedy and supported a good newt population, but didn't appear to have any frogs in it.

About an hour later I came back past the pond and there was a lot of water disturbance. When I looked in the pond the area of frog spawn was now a mass of newts feasting on the newly hatched tadpoles, an hour after that all the tadpoles, and spawn, had gone.

cheers Darrel
 
About an hour later I came back past the pond and there was a lot of water disturbance. When I looked in the pond the area of frog spawn was now a mass of newts feasting on the newly hatched tadpoles, an hour after that all the tadpoles, and spawn, had gone.
Too true. In my posts about my pond I mentioned finding Newts so far embedded in the spawn mass that some could not escape and drowned. I've seen them suck the embryo from the jelly. This is pretty much the only interference from me, remove some spawn and rear the larvae in plasterer's baths until they are ready to metamorphose then add them back to the pond. On the years I don't do it I see little recruitment in the frogs.
 
I find our frogs will find the shallowest place possible to lay - this year I had to tip some out of a trug with 1" of rain water in that they'd picked over the pond! By far their favourite spot is a 12x18" area filled with fist sized cobbles that poke above the water in places (it's about 8" deep in total but the cobbles make it 0-2". It gets filled solid with frogs spawn. Did find a newt making it's way across the patio a few weeks ago, but we don't see them often. Haven't seen toads in years - used to be about even with toads/frogs :(
 
Pond and bog area is going bonkers with all this rain and sun mix. Think the geum is going to have to go, keeping it in check gets annoying. Impulse purchase new iris came out today, it's beautiful but a bit garish for the natural feel!
f4f1f8d7562205e706f17bf598e93629.jpg
644ae15aecdeb8f1e21f06e138f8361e.jpg
68ed306b717579d2816d65f57d63665c.jpg
a1b2aba6ae9f01cf41048d8dd9e5a696.jpg


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Sorry Darrell, was a random just with a written 'iris' tag.

Was loving the pond today, dragon fry and butterfly numbers have exploded around here this week.
9b68029d9281e219feab82e00da933cd.jpg


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top