Gotta love the frogs. We put a de-icer in the skimmer box just for them. Seemed to work - no dead frogs this year. We have two green frogs residing in our pond right now. sure wish they multiplied like the toads! (I like their singing better.)

AHHH! Frogs eating birds?! Well I am sure glad I heard about it here first before I saw it out there. I had no idea frogs would do that. Newbi ponder, can ya tell? I would have been horrified to witness one of the frogs tagging one of my birds.
So far I mostly have a few hundred green tree frogs and at least one, what I suppose to be, bullfrog type. He's not big enough to eat a bird but I will be watching him closely from now on.
I have been trying to lure the western tanagers into my yard for some time and finally they visited last summer...once. I can't imagine seeing that bright yellow and orange bird being sucked down by a toad!

Oh well, real life ain't for sissys. LOL
thanks for the heads up.

Our new pond has been up and going for about 6 weeks now and I cannot stay away from it!! I can't get any laundry done. We are eating off paper plates because the dishes are stacked up and we are on first name basis with the pizza delivery guy. Oh well! About 3 weeks ago we heard a noise while we were getting into bed that sounded like some one was screaming outside. We finally figured out it was coming from the pond so we went to investigate. Lo and behold, it was a toad and he was singing his heart out. The next night there were two more and the music went on for several nights and then stopped. We couldn't decide if they had killed each other or had sex and moved on. Apparently it was the latter as we found dozens of tadpoles today. We figured out they were Woodhouse toads. I was hoping for leopard frogs but we'll see what comes of these. There's something new every day!
Jerrie

MARRRYYY! :D Happy to see your fonts!*hugs*

Keith, hilarious pic!

Lisa...he started w/ sparrows but they're too small for him now, I guess. He's going for the big stuff. LOL

I actually LOVE house sparrows and starlings - go ahead, talk about me. LOL I especially love the starlings...they're hysterical little clown birds. I have one in the yard that I've taught to wolf-whistle. He'll do the first half and I finish it...or vice versa. If I don't do anything, he'll sit in the tree right by the house and do it over and over and over.

They co-exist just fine w/ all of my other birds. Plenty of food, water and shelter for everyone in my yard. :)

I'm a new member of the Gardenweb. Looking through the forums, I ran across your "Frog Stories" I've had a bog-type pond for over 20 years with goldfish, a few koi and various native frogs and other creatures. Several years ago I purchased 6 small green frogs. Don't know what kind, but they were supposed to be able to winter over here in New England. I kept finding them elsewhere in my garden. They wouldn't stay in the pond. One day after returning one to the pond, I found out why. As the small green frog swam around a larger frog jumped at it and had it in its mouth. Before I could do anything a much larger bull frog jumped at the second frog and had it in its mouth. I got my fish net and was able to catch the hugh bull frog easily as he was laden with two other frogs. When I emptied my net onto my patio, the hugh bull frog spit out the second frog and the second frog spit out the little green frog. I had three frogs jumping around. Now I know why the little green frogs left or were eaten. Another time I found one of the bull frogs on the side of the pool with one of my goldfish sticking out of its mouth. The fish was so big that he couldn't swallow it. I caught the frog but the fish was dead already. Lesson is: frogs will try to eat anything that moves and will fit in its mouth. Now I remove the frogs to a much larger pond on my property.

I'm glad to see so many frog enthusiasts, but I now have to ask a question, since I am starting to find them a problem. We bought five tadpoles a couple of years ago, and they all survived, and have turned into fairly good sized bullfrogs. Now they are catching and killing birds, which is a problem in and of itself, since we attract birds to our yard with feeders. We have had at least six dead birds in the past week, all of them looking as though they were caught, and dragged into the water to be drowned. The frogs then perch on the side of the pond, next to the dead birds.

Yesterday, we went out to discover one of the frogs with an entire bird in its mouth, only the feet sticking out. It then proceeded to swallow it. As much as I enjoy a more insect free yard, especially yellow jackets, which seemed to be plentiful this year, I don't want to see all these birds killed, and some eaten, and I am worried about my goldfish. I have about thirty fish, and so far, I think they're all accounted for, but I have been told the bullfrogs will eat them.

I contacted a local environmental center to see if they would take the frogs, and they agreed, However, I am having trouble catching them! The center has a huge pond just for frogs.

Has anyone had the experience of bullfrogs decimating the goldfish population in his or her pond? Not sure what to do right now.

We love our new pond and froggies. We got gift treefrog tadpoles and baby frogs, and then we ordered some bullfrog tadpoles, which now are becoming frogs.

We would love to have other fish once we get our filter running and our ecosystem developing. We figure SOME eating would go on both sides, fish to tadpole or frog. Wouldn't it sort itself out? We see many ponds in Hawaii that have healthy populations of frogs and koi.

We have had some problems with our two cats actively "fishing" for these baby frogs. We even found one wounded frog in the house, but it seemed to swim well post-rescue from the marauding cat. It had lost a little blood though.

The past few days we have not seen as many little frogs on our "beach" (1 inch or less of water). The most we have seen is four at a time. Today, though, on closer inspection, we found three of them peeping out from between the leaves of a freshly introduced live watercress from the grocery store. They are finding good hiding places.

Yesterday, I spotted my first frog. I have only seen toads before. But, as I only caught a quick look, I don't know if he was a Pickerel frog or a Southern Leopard frog. And, naturally, I didn't have the camera.

I have a 20 x 40 concrete pool, 11 feet deep x 3 feet deep. We quit using it after enjoying it for over 30 years and we let it become as "wild" place for creatures of all kinds. I bought feeder goldfish one year and they wintered over and i still have two very LARGE beautiful ones that enjoy the use of our pool. I have not taken the falling leaves off the bottom and i guess this is where they "live" in the winter, under the ice. Frogs and toads appear from where ever and I enjoy their company. When they are sunning themselves on some of the floating pads we used when we used the pool, I find earth worms and toss them on the floater and they hop to gobble them up as fast as i bring them. Last year i had 7 large bullfrogs and some leopards and two beautiful brown quite large toads. It is amazing to watch them catch their own dinner as it flys by their never blinking eyes. It is unbelievable but for three years in a row there was what i think is the same frog that wintered over in my pond and would make the galunk noise when ever i appeared by the poolside. If i made the same noise back he would answer me. If i stood by the pool and could not see where he was i would make that noise and he would answer as tho to tell me where he was. I could sit at the edge of the pool, make the noise and he would swim over to where i was sitting and would even hop up and sit a few feet from me. If i moved slowly, i could edge over to him and lay my hand palm side up and he would hop onto my hand. It would even let me stroke it under the chin without hopping away. My husband took pictures of me with the frog on my hand. This all sounds so unbelievable and sounds unreal as i am reading what i am writing but it is true and it is so amazing. I will look up in my documents and hope i can find the pictures to post here. Has anyone else ever had an experience like this? I have not been able to do this with any of the other frogs that have lived in my pool. Thas happened three years in a row, so i am assuming it is the same frog. This year I have not as yet seen my friendly frog and as of right now i have seen only one very tiny little green frog. I hope my friend will yet come back this year. I've tried calling, he doesn't answer. I hope he is still living somewhere and hope oneday he comes back to my pool! The spring of the year wild ducks use our pool and i put cracked corn out for them. If i forget to fill the dish,we hear a pecking at our patio door to let us know their dish is empty. One year we had put a large innertube with a plastic liner and filled it with straw and the ducks raised a family of 12 fluffy little yellow babies that swam around every day with their parents, and and uncle lol always two drakes. Then it was time to leave and the mother coaxed them up the cement stairway to the deck and they all went their way out into the world. I hate to get rid of my "wild" pool, it still has a link fence all around it as required by code of our city and it is a bit of an eyesore since the tile is falling off the sides and the concrete is breaking up here and there but where will all my "friends" go if i fill it in and make a lawn out of it?

When I put my pond in five years ago one of my pond forum buddies (nosambos) gave me some green frog tadpoles. I have had green frogs ever since. Last fall when I cleaned out the pond for the winter I found several green frog tadpoles living on my floating planter islands. I put them in my settlement pond to overwinter. I don't clean my settlement pond till the spring to give the frogs a good chance of making it through the winter. Two years ago I ordered leopard frog tadpoles. This spring when I went to clean my top pond I had to fish out hundreds of leopard frog tadpoles that froze to death because they didn't go to the bottom of the pond to overwinter. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting on my swing by the pond at night and being serenaded by my frogs. All it takes is one to start and the others join in. I can't imagine life without frogs.

friendlyfrog:

I just love your duck story.

Jenny

I love frogs, I had 1 bfrog in my pond but during the cleaning process he left for greener pastures. I have been catching from since I was like 8, so weve been compadres a long time. Back in the day I caught one that ate a bird in my pond. He couldnt swim fully for a week or so because he was so STUFFED lol.

Any chance we can get a overhead shot of your plate sized bfrog?

LOOOOVE my frogs.....every year I have several green frogs that live in my pond. Just last evening my daughter and I went out after dark for our exercise-walk. Usually we see many toads when we go walking. However, last night, after several days of hard rains, we spotted two tiny frogs hopping on the sidewalk! Since they were far from water and destined to be road pizza, we took them home and put them in our pond.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:200588}}

Took this picture this evening at dusk. The frog is sitting on my "Welcome to my pond" rock. No, it didn't just lay a big blue egg, LOL, ... that's a decorative stone I glued to the rock.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:200589}}

I love my frogs as much as my fish. I buy some tadpoles every year, but when the frogs get big (bullfrogs) they relocate to the creek that is on our property. I never see them long enough to get a picture. They jump as soon as we walk into their sight.

For the people talking about getting leopard frog or tree frog tadpoles. Where do you get them? I'd love to have something other then bullfrogs.

Seems as though some of you have ordered tadpoles and raised them to little frogs. I have 20 large tadpoles that I found in a old bucket near the creek. 2 of them have front and back legs and lost their tails. I just do not know when to release them into my back yard.

I do not have a pond but I have lots of frogs that sing aound my swimming pool. I have a frog log that I bought that helps the ones get out of my pool so they don;t get caught in the skimmer and die.

Would love to know when I can release them. Looks like they are too little to eat but they will not eat in the aquarium that I have them in.

HELP

{{gwi:200599}}

how big is ur pond frogged?

Hello, I have two sections the one in the photo is about 8 or 9 feet long by about 3 wide by 2 to 2 1/2 deep, it normally has the waterfall emptying into it from the filter which collects from the other half of the pond. They are connected by a small stream about 2-3 or so feet which sits under a bridge. But this year I had the lame brain idea to make the other half bigger... so its out of commission until I can get it back together again. So all the water lily's and other plants are sitting in the smaller half of the pond. The frogs seem to like it just fine though. I have one large frog (not in this pic)who has taken up residence, and several small guys who seem to come and go. I have been taking lots of pics, and each day I go out and see how many I can find. Not sure what will happen when I get the other half finished and the pump going again. Im hoping they will stick around and use both halves. Time will tell Frogged.

can u post pictures?> I love seeing other peoples work.

I love reading everyone's frog stories. I live in Wisconsin and have a pond in my yard. Each year we have green frogs. We feed them night crawlers.. they get so friendly they will see us coming and come right up to us. They even nibble on my toes if I get them to close. We are now trying to get bullfrogs. They say they are native to Wisconsin, but we have never seen any yet. Someday we will have some. I grew up with bullfrogs in Idaho and they are a great to have around.

hi dudley! i just happened to check back on this thread and saw that you asked for pics of my big boy. i can't get nearly close enough to get you an overhead shot. my frogs aren't tame AT ALL.

during the day, big hoss lays under the flat rock at the top of my falls, on top of the bags full of bio-media. he waits for birds to come for a drink in the 6" section of the back box housing the biofalls...then he gets a snack. lol

i may have a pic from earlier this year of him next to a 10" floating light ball thingie. let me see if i can find it to give you perspective!

carolyn2010:

If you get bullfrogs they will eat your green frogs. Bullfrogs also eat birds. I don't have bullfrogs for this reason. My waterfall is designed to let the birds drink and bathe.

Jenny

thanks ademik

I got my "Mister Froggie" last year as a tadpole. His brother wandered off but Mister slept on my pond bottom over the winter and is back this year. He's a green frog about the size of my hand (BIG!). He's so great I got a few more for this year.

Yesterday I got worried when I saw him all splayed out next to the pond. A closer look showed me something in his mouth. First I feared it was "Little New Froggie" who just last week came out from the water making the jump from tadpole to froggie but the feet wasn't frog feet.

It was a small bird. He was holding it down till he could swallow it whole.

Yummm... I hope that was good eatin. I thought he was getting that big on bugs but he's onto something better!

I went to a big reptile show last week and the man who started the Save The Frogs movement was there, giving a talk. Kerry Kriger has made a beautiful website with all kinds of photos and fascinating information about frogs, and he has all the reasons we should all do the best we can to help them survive because they are in BIG trouble and its humans' fault. The more of us "frog people" there are, the more hope for recovery. Join in!
min

{{gwi:200600}}

I read somewhere that you could hand feed frogs so I thought I give it a try. I was already throwing this frog a grasshopper now and then because it was blind in one eye. Well, since I have started hand feeding this one two more have noticed and joined the game. The one eyed frog (maybe female) even jumps at my hand when I feed the fish. I don't know what I have started, but it is fun to feed the frogs.

min3 what is Kerry Krieger web site addy so I can take a look at it?

I need a quick education. I see a couple of frogs around my pond, at least I think they're frogs. They would jump in the pond and disappear the next day, returning some days later. Are these frogs? What's the difference between frogs and toads? Is one preferred more over the other for the pond?

Thanks,

Carolyn,
google; SAVE THE FROGS.com

Kerry is a fascinating snd fearless guy and what an amazing life he has lived! (is living.) We and our frogs need many more people like him.

min

newgen:
While both are born in water Frogs prefer to live there while toads prefer dryer habitats. Frogs are more streamlined for swimming and have damp green boddies and webbed toes. Toads are grayer bumpy warty dry skin and no webs on their toes.

Frogs prefer your pond. If they hop into the water then they are probably frogs.

(I'm not an expert, I looked most of this up. Google is your friend!)

I live about 500 yards from a creek. I have had my pond 6 years now. A green frog moved in this summer and he looks like he is staying. I'm in zone 4. How well do frogs winter in a liner pond? I could catch him and bring him back to the creek for winter.

I also love watching my frogs, fish and other creatures in my pond. Turtles will not stay. They take off within a day or 2.
Sometimes I sit for hours watching the frogs and fish. We put in many tadpoles this spring, but I think that the fish ate every one of them. We caught about 5 different types of frogs totaling 16. At any given time I usually can see at least 5 in my 12x14 natural looking, rock pond. The thing I wanted to tell all of you who love to watch your frogs catch bugs, is to attract flies with overripe bananas. I put a smashed piece of banana on a leaf and set it on a rock near the water.I usually set out 2 or 3 leaves at a time. My frogs are so conditioned, that as soon as they see me set down the leaf with banana on it, they come sit on the leaf and wait for dinner to arrive! Have fun frog watching!

the teal frog i found is still living at my pond, he seems to only come out at night though.

I should have been keeping up on this thread :)
I'll answer as many questions as I thought people were trying to ask.

1. Green Frogs are the most social of the frogs I've found. Bullfrogs, though larger and more fierce are more shy of humans.

2. Bullfrogs will eat all other frogs they come across. They will not eat toads since toads are toxic. So if you want more variety than just Bullfrogs, you must remove all the Bullfrogs.

3. Since Bullfrogs are so flighty they can be very difficult to catch. We had accidnetally introduced 5 Bullfrogs into our pond. It took me 3 weeks to catch them all. The first 3 was via flahslight and net. Shine a light on their eyes and slowly move towards them as the light stays fixed then net them. We had two remaiming Bullfrogs (huge ones) that shot to the bottom of the pond the minute they heard anything. This is why it took 3 weeks. We ended up having to use a "fly hook" on a bamboo pole stuck out our window to catch him. It may seem cruel, but they were very small hooks and only pierced lip. We were then able to relocate them.

4. Bullfrogs will eat fish fry and small fish, most other frogs will not. On the flip side, fish love to eat frog tadpoles. Toad tadpoles are toxic so if your fish eats them they can die if they don't spit them out (usually they do).

5. Can frogs winter in lined ponds? They can but it's difficult. This is why we built a "winter bog". Our main pond and bog had a 95% loss of rate of hibernating frogs, meanwhile our Winter Bog had an 80% success rate for overwintering frogs. The Winter Bog is a lined feature, but has varying levels of mud, from 1/2" to 1 foot thick. This allows the frogs to find their comfort zone from spending the long winter (we're in Michigan). The winter Bog is not that big. Maybe 5' x 12'. The deepest part of the Winter Bog is 3', and the shallowest is just 1/2".

Friendlyfrog - your Green Frogs and Bull Frogs will die without that concrete pool as a water source. Other frogs such as Wood Frogs, Leopard Frogs etc can go extended periods of time without a pond, but they do need mosture. Toads are resilient little buggers and get all the water they need from the morning dew that collects on their bodies. They take their arm/hand and pull the moisture down their back to their mouths where they drink it in. This is all the water they need.

All amphibians need water to reproduce so during spring/summer the smell of water draws them like a moth to light.

Here's some frog videos you might enjoy :)

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3t9gQo3G8&hd=1]Early Spring[/url]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c24VQYfIijw=1]Wood Frog Babies[/url]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3t9gQo3G8&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c24VQYfIijw=1

So yesterday I'm out back looking over my pond and I see big Froggie sitting on the back of the pond slate edging pretending he's part of the plant he's half underneath. I decide it would be fun to "mess with froggie" so I kneel behind him and start walking my fingers near and away from him to see if I can get a reaction, or maybe get him to let me pet him or something.

Well... I finger walk up, back, up... BAM! He nails my finger with his tongue and a millisecond later had his mouth around my fingers! Oops, sorry big Froggie but you can't eat me.

He did look a little thin, head way over sized from his belly. Maybe he hasn't caught a bird this week. Should I think about feeding him something?

Ernie - absolutely feed him something! Our local big grocery store sells trout worms and nightcrwalers so those would be good depending on his size. If you can stand being a little cruel, you can get large crickets at a pet store. Pluck their back legs off so they can't escape the frog, and toss it near him. Crickets & Grasshoppers are generally better nutrition for a frog than just worms as a frogs gut is primed for taking advantage of the high protein levels in bugs. I just can't bring myself to do the leg plucking for some reason though I will slice big wax-worm grubs in half for our Wood Frogs.

I'd like to emphasize with fall/winter coming it's very important for people to fatten up their frogs. Undernourished frogs will not make it through the winter.

Ernie, you can also just dig up worms in your backyard too if it's more convenient.

>>>google; SAVE THE FROGS.com

--->I really liked that website until I saw they were trying to get schools to stop dissecting frogs. There's absolutely no way I will support them after seeing that.

I do agree though it is important to work to preserve frog habitat, and to control the pesitcides/chemicals that are causing them to disappear. Today it's them, tomorrow it'll be us...

T Biker- I can't understand why you think its so important for children to dissect frogs at school when it can be more environmentally correct and just as educational to do it on a computer program.
Min

A large bullfrog took up residence in our pond last year. I don't know where he came from, but he is BIG! The pond is four years old and has goldfish and minnows too. Here is a photo of our bullfrog. I hope he made it through the winter this year, I'd hate to lose such a handsome fellow.

{{gwi:200602}}

dudley...I realized i never posted pics.

there are three frogs in this shot - can you see them all? :)

the ball is 10" in diameter, just for perspective

{{gwi:200604}}

jpinard: sorry I missed your reply. My Mr Big Froggie was just in between birds, as a few days later he was back to his HUGE size.

This winter he slept over in my plants-only pond that doesn't get any care for the winter. I cleaned it out a few weeks ago because it was so STINKY and I saw My B swimming in it. As I drained it I must have disturbed his slumber as he came back to the top where I netted him and put him into the fish pond.

Currently he found a hiding place I made for him (doubles as an escape ramp) and he is back resting.

Great topic, I also have at last count 7 of them using the pond, I just don't know where the go for the winter, our ground is so hard.. I put a pic of my big Froggie I have.
The other frogs are all different sizes..
Only a face a mother could love (lol)
{{gwi:187610}}

Sheri

I found a dead frog in my small reflecting pool this morning (4 x 6 feet). I'm afraid it jumped in and couldn't find a way out because the pool has straight walls and is 30" deep. Does anyone have any ideas about how to prevent critter deaths in the future? The pool is so small that adding a sloping rock that would be tall enough to climb would take it over. I'm thinking about a hardy water lily that is strong enough to support frogs/toads.

Kensington, you might be able to use a piece of driftwood or a long thick stick or something similar that is half in and half out of the water. If they can get a toehold on it, they can climb out.

Oh, I wish I had thought of GardenWeb four years ago! I rescued a batch of tadpoles from the spring draining of my above-ground swimming pool cover, thinking they'd morph out into frogs and go their merry way. Unfortunately (or delightfully, actually) the spring draining didn't happen until mid-summer that year and the tadpoles I saved got a late start. I had set up a tadpole pond for them on the picnic table, on a covered patio. A wisteria branch pulled over to the "pond" was to serve as their highway out.

But, come October, I still had about two dozen tadpoles in various stages of metamorphosis and it got cold. Too cold for a container that held water only 2.5" deep. They can take extreme cold, but frozen solid? I had my doubts. My happy mistake was bringing them inside.

You have NO idea how labor intensive it is to raise baby treefrogs until you do it. I ended up with five different terrariums set up, for tadpoles, froglets, and frogs; heat lamps; flightless fruitfly cultures in my bedroom; crickets over the heat vent in my bathroom; and it took 9 months for it to get warm enough and them to get large enough to release. They had to be fed at least twice a day and keeping up with the tank cleaning and their food supply made it a full-time job. In the end, some went to live at Zoo Atlanta and some to Fernbank Science Center, with much gratitude to the herpetologists at both places who were gracious and patient enough to answer all my over the course of their little froggie beginnings.

Was it worth it? Well, I did it all over again the next year. LOL I had all the equipment and a lot more knowledge, so I wouldn't be totally lost during a second run. I didn't really plan to repeat the experience, though. I only wanted to see if a spoonful of eggs... EGGS, not tadpoles, would be viable, having been laid in chlorinated pool water. All 48 turned into tadpoles! They were the size of that exclamation point, but just large enough to get my heart. Again.

My frogs were Cope's Gray Treefrogs. First year, I lost six out of 26. The next year, I didn't lose a single frog. Of the 48 I started with, most morphed out and were released before winter. I ended up raising the last dozen. That dozen now reside at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (thanks to a dear friend and fellow froglet raiser who is a volunteer shark tank diver at the aquarium.)

I just found this thread today and can't wait to read it all. I have a time crunch, so I could only read about half before I stopped to write this. Love frogs? I adore them. I'll post pictures from my adventure when I can find time to upload them from the little digital discs to my computer.

P.S. Wish we had an edit feature. I just learned that you need to click "Preview" every time before you hit "Submit"... even if you've made your final changes since the last preview. I meant to add the word "questions" in the third paragraph, as well as a couple of other small corrections, but they didn't take. Live and learn. :-)

I look forward to your pictures

I like stories like that. On behalf of the frogs thank you for going to all that trouble.

Early in the season here we have intermittant rain and water holes/hollows sometimes dry out again. Unfortunately the frogs lay their eggs anyway. So as the water starts drying out I try to collect as many eggs as possible and put them into containers so they survive. Once the rains set in there's no problem. Then at the end of the rainy season and things start to dry out I sometimes find late tadpoles but not usually many. I guess the frogs work on the numbers game. They produce as many as possible and then leave it up to nature. But a little bit of help doesn't go astray. And fortunately the climate here allows outdoor survival all year.

Another frog lover here lookin forward to pics too. TFS.

blessings,
~digger