eRodent > The Garden Pond Page > June 2004.


June 2004 and Frog Spawn Pond Watch.

Please be patient if this page takes a little while to load as I have put fairly high quality photographs on it.

Earlier photos of the frog spawn are available on the on the March 2004, April 2004 and May 2004 pages.

Better late than never! It's the end of June and I haven't done any updates until now for a number of reasons. There wasn't much change in the tadpoles and because of the duckweed it was difficult to get photos. Their numbers have really reduced, but then again there's lots of weed and stuff for them to hide in and there's probably more than I think. In addition I've been doing my university exams - the joys of being a mature student. Today I went out and did a little pond dipping. There is a wonderful amount of invertebrate life in the pond at the moment. We've also just purchased a solar powered fountain which I am hoping will keep the duckweed under control. It's not all bad though as I have no blanket weed at all and the pond looks really healthy. We're loosing to rampant plant life but I don't suppose that the wildlife minds. I was so busy in February I didn't do the plant reduction that I'd planned but next year, honest!

Tadpoles


I caught two tadpoles and a large range of invertebrates with my net. I have cheated and put them in a white bowl to photograph them. The first is much better developed. He has 3 legs at present and you can see a lump where the final leg will break out soon. So it looks like we should have baby frogs hopping around soon. My husband has varnished the paving slabs around the pond this year so that they don't absorb water. In previous years baby frogs have become stuck on them as they left the pond so hopefully the varnish will stop that.

Tadpoles


The second tadpole still has no legs at all. All the spawn was laid within about 24 hours and I didn't bring any in this year so I don't know why they are developing at different rates. I have had at least one email from someone saying they thought development was slow this year. But I can't be sure because although I have seen baby frogs by now in previous years this is the first year I haven't raised any indoors. I also had tadpoles over wintering last winter so maybe that will happen again.

Tadpoles


Took a couple of photos of a great water boatman (back swimmer) and some small arthropods, possibly water hog lice.If you want to identify some of the micro-organisms in your pond take a look at the wildlife links page for some sites.

Tadpoles


Tadpoles


I saw my first baby frog on July 1st - he still had a bit of a tail but he jumped away when I moved some stuff on the beach. On July 9th I saw my first proper baby frog out of the pond. Photo on the July 2004 page.

Do you like this page? Is it useful? Please email me and let me know. I always say that you can tell that it's spring when the frog spawn emails start to arrive, but I'm always interested in hearing about people's experiences. I get a lot of spam so put something about tadpoles in the title so I can spot people's emails!!

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