Friday 24th February 2012
It's almost uncanny that our wild frogs have an inbuilt seasonal clock, it's12 months to the day that they're back in my pond to start their annual spawning .Looking back in my diary to last year the same weather conditions and temperatures were almost identical to today's so I think it most be the frogs sensitivity to the water temperature that trigger off their annual spawning.
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Are our wild ducks also so clever as to know the exact day that my garden frogs start their annual spawning ? The male first showed up a few days ago for a quick visit but today he's brought his mate back with him. They must be the same pair that have visited our garden over the last few years because they always sit at the back door waiting to be fed. Having the ducks is a mixed blessing, I enjoy them around the garden but they do mess up my pond and if I don't net the pond nearest to the house they will eat most of the frogspawn and clear up the young tadpoles after they've hatched. The female will lay her eggs somewhere in the fields near our house, hatch them and bring them down to either our pond or our neighbours pond for a few days then they disappear until around this time a year later it's uncanny.
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Are our wild ducks also so clever as to know the exact day that my garden frogs start their annual spawning ? The male first showed up a few days ago for a quick visit but today he's brought his mate back with him. They must be the same pair that have visited our garden over the last few years because they always sit at the back door waiting to be fed. Having the ducks is a mixed blessing, I enjoy them around the garden but they do mess up my pond and if I don't net the pond nearest to the house they will eat most of the frogspawn and clear up the young tadpoles after they've hatched. The female will lay her eggs somewhere in the fields near our house, hatch them and bring them down to either our pond or our neighbours pond for a few days then they disappear until around this time a year later it's uncanny.
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How wonderful to have ducks visiting your garden. Your pond looks so lovely and natural I am not surprised they like it:))
ReplyDeleteWow, David that is great timing on the part of both the frogs and the ducks. I had no idea that the ducks would eat the frogspawn. I can understand the mixed blessing their visits bring.
ReplyDeleteI’m guessing the frogs found your pond first. Did your neighbour have a pond before you and the frogs found your pond through it? I wonder when my pond build gets completely how frogs will find it when very few gardens around me have plants for shelter and there are no ponds that I know of. I fear I may be frogless – what do you think?
Hi shirl, I dug my pond 28 years ago and the frogs just turned up, just a few in the first couple of years then they slowly built up to more than 100 around spawning time. I used to assist them safely to our pond as they made their way to our pond by removing them off the road on our avenue.There are two small garden ponds in our area they have been built after mine so now they are used by a few frogs around spawning time so it takes a bit of pressure off our pond. This year I counted around 60 frogs so numbers are down a bit. I have to net one of the ponds to protect the tadpoles from the ducks or they will consume the lot, perhaps that's why my numbers are down because in the last few years very few tadpoles have reached maturity.
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