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3 8

I posted this in natural history, but thought you may like it too. Some of the frog-spawn on the garden pond is new laid, and glistening bright on the water surface, but some of it is near to hatching now. You can quite clearly see the little fetuses in the second photo, thought they still have a large yoke sack. This represents about a two week laying period. It always amazes me that cold blooded frogs can come out to breed so early in the season, when we are still getting night frosts at least.

Fernapple 9 Mar 10
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3

Level 8

Years ago I found a football-sized sac of bullfrog eggs while kayaking, though someone had to tell me what it was. They must have broken free from the stick-anchor point - amazing to see, but not likely to survive the free-floating.

1

Level 9

Nice to see, I'm at present devising a way to ensure that frogs can actually use my garden pond again to breed in and I can stop the birds and stray cats from from eating both the frogs and their eggs and tadpoles as well.
It worked great UNTIL the lilies I grew in the pond were STOLEN a few years ago, I had frogs everywhere and probably they were getting over crowded as well because they 'migrated' in to the garden ponds a few neighbors as well.

Triphid Level 9 Mar 11, 2022

Yes they like a few plants for the tadpole to hide under from the hot sun and predators. You could try some cheaper plants that are not a tempting to theives.

@Fernapple Sorely tempted to mix real water plants with artificial ones this time around and a friend has just finished fabricating a new design of pond cover that he intends to test on his garden pond first and then will make me one as well if it works as expected.

@Triphid Good idea.
2

Level 9

I once had an embryology class and the instructor had tried to arrange to get fertilized frog eggs, but failed. By the most amazing coincidence, a female toad laid strings of eggs in my Mother's reflecting pond. I scooped up a few and brought them in. The class got to watch them develop, at least for a while.

Hiking around Mono Pass, certain alpine ponds had vast clouds of black tadpoles swimming en masse almost like the murmuring of Starlings...

racocn8 Level 9 Mar 10, 2022
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