My pond, the frog nursery!

This is the scene from my window - the pond looks as if it's boiling as the frogs jostle for the best position! Click on the pic to enlarge it and see how many pairs of froggy eyes you can spot.


The moment I go outside they all vanish - except today one decided to stay and pose for the camera.


And this is why - look mum, look what I've done!


On Tuesday there was just one small blob of frog spawn - today (Thursday) there are SIX!



We'll be moving house next month so won't see them grow up this year, I've got enough packing to do without working out how to transport amphibians! In any case, it's not advisable to move pond life around, it can unwittingly spread invasive non-native plants. I'm sure we can soon attract some frogs to our new home.

Sharks in my pond!

Meerkat mania has slowed down a bit, thankfully, so I took a little time away from knitting to sit by my pond.

*shock horror* where have all my tadpoles gone? This is what the edge of the pond used to look like in April...



I spotted some after a while, but their behaviour has changed. they used to spend lots of time in the shallows, but now they're all at the bottom of the pond, lying low.

And then I saw the culprits, circling in the water, darting around looking for their next snack. Dragonfly larvae - the sharks of the garden pond.



This isn't my pic, I googled it, but I saw four or five of these hungry beasties. I hope we'll spot them emerging, and I hope they'll leave at least some taddies behind, I want froglets!

In an English Country Garden....

The fritillaries (above) are in full bloom now.



The bleeding hearts aren't quite open, but show promise of what is to come.

And as for the taddies!

You probably think I'm being cruel, keeping the new babies in such shallow water - but they've chosen to swim to the very edge of the pond. It's shelved gently from the gravel into the water, like a beach - and the daft tadpoles like to go there because of course the shallow water is warmer.



The ones at the back are pushing and shoving - the tadpoles at the edge are virtually on dry land! I had to hose the pebbles down so they would go back in the water (I'm a nice mum really!)

YAY for pondlife!

I love my pond, every morning I pop outside to see how the tadpoles are getting on - quite often while still in my dressing gown, so it's a good thing we have high fences!



They've mostly hatched now, but are still in the safety of the spawn mass. There are some fallen leaves in the water, so many are clustering in the shallow warmer water on the leaf surfaces.

Last year, when they got braver and moved into the shallow water at the shelving edge of the pond, where the water is warmer, a lot of them were picked off by the blackbirds :-(




The water boatmen took a lot too -so I spent many a happy hour getting in nature's way, scooping ot water boatmen and chucking them over the fence! They soon came back though.




Big excitement this morning - saw the first newt in our pond! I love newts even more than tadpoles, so I won't mind the newt picking off a few for lunch.

In our previous garden I spent hours watching newts do their courtship dance - it's really cute. they bend their tails back parallel to their bodies and wiggle it about - very sexy, if you're a lady newt. They develop beautiful orange chests too.



And then it's egg laying time. Unlike frogs, newt eggs are laid individually. The mummy newt grasps a pond leaf in her back legs, lays an egg and carefully wraps each egg in a leaf - so sweet! I'm looking forward to newt taddies - they develop front legs first, the other way around from frog taddies.

I'll stop now - sorry, I got carried away. Every now and then I miss teaching so much I can't help myself from presenting a lesson!

I'm going to be a granny!

Bet that got my kids' attention!

When I looked out of the window this morning I had to rush straight out to the pond...



Our first frog spawn of the season!

Last year was our first spring as "pond owners" and I was worried that the frogs wouldn't find us. They did, of course. Must have been the signs I put up eveywhere...



Some of last year's tadpoles "forgot" to change into frogs, and were still swimig around, legless, in November. No sign of them now, however.

Can't wait for my new babies to arrive!