I had a 9' pond in a very urban setting. Nearest creek was a half mile away, multiple streets, commercial area and a busy railroad in between. Yet frogs found me! They didn't mind the waterfall or the fish. If you have enough plants in the pond for cover, and provide a way to get out of the pond when they want to, they'll love it. How long have you had your pond? If you've had it through one spring/summer, I'm surprised you don't have any by now.

The difference between a frog and a toad is not as hard to see as you think. A toad has a more granular skin, a frog has smooth skin (there are a few exeptions). Frogs have big muscles in their hind legs so they can jump quite some distance. Toads take it a bit slower, hardly ever jump and mostly walk. Some toads can even run pretty fast. There are other (more important) criteria but you have to take them apart to see that. So I'm not telling anyone :-) Going by the picture I think this looks a lot like Bufo melanostictus. A pretty common toad in Asia. Toads can be good climbers though, especialy when there's a nice wet spot like that to cool them down in the tropical heat. These guys eat grashoppers by the dozen Chanin, be very very happy he's there. Sander

Looks like a gray treefrog - common here in the midwest and in the eastern part of the country. I don't know if they are found in California, but if they are not, there must be a closely related species there. Tucker

oh dear and I thought I was the only one to be amused at childrens jokes. Chip just wanted to say that Tricia is in Devon and she has large clumps of frogspawn and long strips of toadspawn in her pond at the moment. Are they earlier in Devon than normal this year as we further up north have seen frog activity but no spawn yet. it is normally towards March so is earlier than normal up here but obviously nowhere near you in the south. Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons pond and garden