A word of caution. Be very careful when adding frogs or tadpoles to your pond from the "pet shop". Many species of frogs that are not native to your area, may in fact harm the native species in your area. I spoke with someone from the DNR who cautioned me of the same thing. He said that if I wanted to add frogs to our pond to find someone else with a pond in our area and scoop tadpoles from their pond. This was pretty easy to do and didn't cost us a thing. If you only collect 4 or 5 you shouldn't have problems with noise levels, even in the city. This year, we have bull frogs, other years it was the small green frogs. They come and go all summer. Don't worry about feeding them. They will take care of themselves. And yes, they will eat the fish fry in your pond.

Again, please stick with the frogs native to your area, okay?

Dig

I agree about sticking with native frogs. They're going into your pond and will be free to come and go. Non-native frogs may not survive, or may cause problems in the local environment.

Yes, larger frogs may eat a few fish, but it is not a major part of their diet. They only eat what they find at or above the surface or in very shallow water. They don't dive for food. They have a pretty simple mode of existence for most of their adult lives. When they see a moving object, they judge whether to hide from it or to swallow it!

Tadpoles eat mostly algae. When they are transitioning they eat nothing and live off their tail.

The other thing about frogs is that all of them sing at some point in the year. Bullfrogs and green frogs tend to sing throughout the summer. They are also the ones that are most aquatic, and most likely to hang out in the pond rather than wandering off into the woods. Leopard and pickerel frogs stay near the water but like to hunt in grassy areas. Wood frogs breed in one mad rush and then spend the rest of the season in the deep damp woods. Toads will hang out in the garden if they have nice places to hide, like hollow logs or overturned flower pots. Tree frogs and peepers will be heard much more than seen. They sing mainly in the spring, and during wet weather in the summer and fall.

For overwintering, some kinds will find places on land, and others will overwinter at the bottom of the pond.

No way to have frogs and not have them sing at breeding season. Sorry.

As others have said, please don't buy frogs from a petstore.

Do you have fish? I never had frogs until I built ponds without fish. They showed up and bred almost immediately after.

Check to see if you have a local pond club or water garden organization in your area. Chances are, some of the members would be happy to let you have a few of their tads.

Too bad you don't live in my area! I have loads of tadpoles, both frog and toad, and I would be delighted to give them to people in my area.

Bullfrogs are pretty common but if you go to a creek or pond in Southern Ontario, you should find leopard frogs. They are smaller and do not have quite the bass that bullfrogs do when croaking. Anyone with a cottage and some kids can bring a few back for you.

Thanks for the great info everyone!

I just came across a cool website: http://www.torontozoo.com/adoptapond/frogs.asp which has frogs native to my area. It has information and pictures of each type, plus it plays the sounds of each of their 'calls'. I'll have to check this out tonight (otherwise, if people will wonder if they hear croaking and ribbiting from my desk here at work).
I'll look into the leopard frog and green frog then. I'm sure many of these frogs exist up at my mother's cottage (Parry Sound area). I'll be going up there with my kids in two weeks, so we'll know what to look for. If I were to find some tadpoles then I might not get what I expect (lots of bull frogs at the cottage). I do love to hear the sound of them singing at night, I just don't want our neighbours to complain.

I'll definetely stay away from pet stores then. Also if I were to find wild tadpoles, don't I have to worry about quarantining them?