Frogs in the Pond????

Not fair!!! :( The fish haven't even come back up yet.... and we are supposed to be in the balmy South

 

I'm curious now. I always thought frogs buried themselves in mud or hid in holes in rocks and the likes for winter just as toads do, but all the comments in this post seem to imply they stay in the water. Being amphibian frogs need to breath air. Where do they spend winter?

 

Either on land partly burried or completely submerged, they can can hibernate in or out of water, this applies to newts as well.

 

Frogs have the ability to absorb oxygen through their skin when they hibernate at the bottom of the ponds it's mainly the males that do this the females seem to prefer land hibernation.

 

I have some frogspawn this morning ( frogspond in school , long time ago) and a few frogs.

 

Well, you learn something new every day. Thanks for that info. I guess that means that the pond must have plenty of oxygenating plants in there, perhaps more so than would otherwise be necessary, for it to be hospitable to the frogs.

I didn't realise just how little I knew on this subject. I have a small patch on my land that my dad calls the sink hole (it isn't one, it is just a indentation that catches all the run-off water), its about 2 ft deep, with a floor of mud soft enough to get a tractor stuck (as happened once). Rather than draining it off I was think of incorporating it into my wildlife haven plan and filling it with oxgenating pond plants in the hope that the wildlife would make use of it. I reckon I'm going to have to do lots of reading now before I do anything with it, otherwise I might as well save some time and just throw my money into it without going to the garden centre first

 

First showing this morning in our pond. A bit sluggish but I reckon in a day or two they will be everywhere..
I do hope so.

 

Red leg disease may have declined this spring after the coldest winter for 20 years but please beware of giving away any frogspawn and introducing it to other ponds. During the frog spawn season I and other volunteers spend a lot of time at our local nature reserve stopping people from dumping frog spawn into the ponds there. The reserve is an SSSI so it is very important to preserve the site from this disease.

If you od have a lot of spawn don't worry as nature will decide what survives and what does not a frogs and toads will lay over 20,000 eggs and of course not all with hatch.

 

Llandrindod Wells boasts a large Victorian Lake and the locals used to have a annual Toad, maybe Frog also, Lift. The creatures were helped across the perimiter road, using shovels and I expect other suitable carriers, onto the banks of the lake thereby saving the squashed Toad syndrome. I am not sure if it is still carried out today though.

 

Hans, long time no 'see', we used to have Toad Crossing signs where they were known to cross regularly but were taken down after a couple of years never knew why as the toads still cross there!
Probably apathy on the council's part, putting up a sign just to take it down again three weeks later.

 

I hope we dont get a frost then. If we had a cold winter there may be a good summer like 1989.

Frogs will re lay spawn if killed off by frosts

 

They have a remarkable dawn chorus. Love to see and hear them

 

Benacre said,

I don't think so,frogs do not feed when waking up from hibernation and don't feed all through the breeding period,as soon as they finish spawning they move mainly to the land around their pond to feed and build up their reserves the spawn developes at the back end of the year ready for the following spring.

 

YAY!!!! We have spawn!!!! Only one clump, mind, and I'm worried it's been killed off by the freezing temperatures, although there hasn't been any ice on the pond. We now have to make a fish free area so the golfished don't scoff it all!! I found one frog in the pond at the weekend when I moved a basket, but that's the only sighting - have no idea where they are hiding....if they have any sense, they've gone back into hibernation!!