Dave, That is an unbelievable sight. I remember you putting a pic on the gallery of the pond having so much spawn. What a sight. How many frogs are going to survive in that lot????? They are certainly not leaving anything to chance down your way. What do the neighbours think when the froglets start moving through their gardens? It puts my few tads to shame. I thought I had a lot but lately it is so hard to find any. We have been doing a video clip for my website of the life cycle of a frog which was quite easy when the tads had just emerged as they were easy to collect, but now to continue the video we need to catch some more to see how they have grown. It is much harder for us to do whereas you can literally just go and pick up handfulls. If you do visit my website you will notice on the home page a link now to a forum we are hoping to get started. One without adverts and popups. it is live now (well when NTL don't have probs anyway) so maybe drop in. It's still www.the-horsfalls.co.uk Alison

Sean I would be careful what you say [lol]...I might cast a spell to make your legs even shorter! Dampflippers I did try transfering a small amount of frogspawn from the other ponds but I think the magpies or(something)ate it! Get a lot of birds using this pond to drink and bathe. Wonder if the frogs and toads realise their eggs are safer in the short term in the netted ponds? My fish eat about 75% of the frog taddies when they start swimming around but I've heard fish won't touch toad taddies as they taste nasty. It will be interesting to see if they spit these out. Sue

Hi again, just another thought about the frogs and tadpoles. Given your pond is very new, there might not be much for you little tadpoles to eat when they hatch. Algae and decaying plant matter after they finish with the spawn jelly, and after they get legs they get look for meat, and your bug and microorganism population won't be that terrific yet so it is more likely they would look to one another for breakfast. (They do that anyway, but less if there is a variety of options). So two options--give the spawn back to your sister for this year, or take it indoors to rear until they get legs and hope the pond has matured enough by then. Boiled iceberg lettuce works to keep them going as food source indoors when they are big and active, and keeps in the freezer. The wildlife will come and thrive when the conditions are right and that won't take long, and you are on the road to have the most fantastic wildlife site. I dug my pond the same time of year as you, and as a frog fantatic, was desperate for frogs. The day after fillling, there was a pondskater already trying it out from somewhere. By spring after the planting had taken off, the bug population took off, and so did the blanket weed. Stuck a few stickelback in (4) and they provided some wildlife interest for the first summer, and by June there were visiting frogs and toads. In fact, I am sure I saw a newt by the end of the first summer, but convinced myself it was a big stickelback. When spawning season came a year later, there were 30 out there and 6 clumps of spawn--and we have not looked back. Put a birdfeeder up and the variety of birds that come to the pond is incredible. And of course there are the dragonflies which will find your pond this summer, and you will gradually see the results of that next spring for the damselflies, and over the next 3 years for the big guys. And by that time, the newts, frogs and toads have shown they are here to stay. Must admit, I am a stickelback fan as they are a native species, too small to attract heron, but provide fry for everyone else and only eat a few of the tadpoles. They also provide food for a kingfisher who comes from the river a mile away (see thread of unexpected visitor). I think having a branch or something to perch on helps. Stickelback are also fun to watch during breeding season, as the males do all the work making nests, attracting females, guarding the eggs--dab hand at multi-tasking! The plant pots and marginals in your sisters pond provide that shallow area and help with with food chain. Clever little guys to find eeny weeny ladders too! Have fun--

When I moved into my current abode, there was a pond in the front garden, about 18 month old. It is 4.5 m x 4.5m, with a 900mm wide shelf all the way around with 2"-4" depth.. The centre 2.7m x 2.7m has a depth of ~1. 5m. To stock it he threw in, as I have since discovered, some variety of pennywort, what I believe is a Myriophyllum spp., a deep water oxygenator, and Fairy moss (Azolla) :-(( , along with 2 water lilies. Oh, and sticklebacks. :=)) Water was "clear", but first priority was to eliminate the Azolla. Once achieved, I built a small waterfall feature. Can't have too much oxygenated water. Also noticed that the water lilies only had a few leaves and only one flower between them. By chance, I managed to get hold of another water lily, so I planted it up and put it in, as the existing ones were a bit pathetic. This year, the water is crystal clear. I can now see that the whole of the deep water is full of the deep water oxygenator. All the lilies are doing well this year. Well, almost! The white one, which had 1 flower last year, managed 3 this year, but the other, original, one have gone "Whooppee!!! I'm alive" and flowered like mad, as did the new one. By accident I discovered why the original lilies had grown so poorly. In checking the waterfall pump, I disturbed one of them, which promptly floated to the surface. On checking I found that the basket it was in was the nursery basket it was in when first got from the garden centre. I just weighted it down a bit to keep it as much under water as I could. What I plan to do is: 1..... Wait for the last 2 buds, now breaking surface, to finish, then pull it out, trim all leaves off, replant into proper basket. 2.... Remove the poor performing white. 3.... Heavily trim the pennywort back. 4.... Remove the Myriophyllum spp. as it seems redundent, as the only foliage, is above water. 5.... Thin out the Deep water oxygenator. Any comments as to 1 (wrong time of year??) How much of the deep water oxygenator can I remove?. Have also added Rudd and Golden Rudd, Golden and Blue Orfe. TIA Fof