Reply to ...wow...everyone: I think Gardenersworld.com needs to have a pond website. This blog entry has attracted so many comments. Where to start?
Lots of spawn comes to nothing, so if yours fails don't worry. Frogs lay their eggs in the most inappropriate places such as shallow puddles, cart ruts, water buts, flooded buckets and drains. I had some spawn in my garden pond, but it melted away, helped by the feeding of pond snails. The frogs will be back next year.
A pond needs be no bigger than a garden sink to attract frogs and have them lay eggs. Only a handful of tadpoles will make it through to maturity, but mortality is high in nature everywhere.
It is a common misconception that frogs only occur in ponds. In fact they spend most of their time out of water, really only returning to breed. A logpile or mass of twigs behind the shed is just as valuable to them, providing shelter during the whole year.
The disease of frogs causing some concern to wildlife groups is called redleg, a virus which leads to other bacterial and fungal infections and apparently causes subcutaneous bleeding to cause the red colour in the limbs. It is partly because of this that moving spawn from one location to another is now being discouraged.
And finally a reply to hellsbells. I disagree. I make a point never to leave wildlife alone. I study it. I interact with it. I show it to others, especially children. It's all very well being an armchair naturalist, but more people need to get their hands on. Growitallkath is right, more children need to get their hands dirty, grubbing for ground beetles, or wet, pond-dipping after boatmen and frogspawn.
