Absence of Frogs
JenBee
Posts: 1
Three years ago I had over 60 frogs in my wildlife friendly garden in South Suffolk.
Numbers subsequently diminished and this year there is only one frog on the pond.
Have not discovered any dead frogs.
What is going on ?
JenBee
0
Posts
Hi JenBee, do the frogs normally spawn in your pond? If so, it could be that the one frog is just waiting for the others to arrive. Spawning occurs much later in the east of the UK than in the west, and it has been quite cold lately. We are supposed to have some rain this weekend, so it could be just what your frogs need to finally come to your pond to spawn.
As regards the slowly diminishing number, there could be a number of reasons. It could be that the frogs are choosing other ponds in preference to yours, or that it isn't as easy to accss your garden as it once was. Disease is also a possibility, or even predation by local cats. Adults normally only spend the mating season near ponds, so are often found a fair distance away from water. Also the last couple of years have been very dry in Suffolk, so that could have affected frog numbers.
Take a look at Nature's Calendar for frogspawn sightings in your area: http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/wildlife/factfiles/amphibians/frogspawn.htm
And do let us know if more frogs join in for spawning this year. I'm still waiting for mine to spawn!
Kate
most likely you have had the same as I had.. HERON... early mornings about 4am they come.. sneaky little things..took my fish too..only way is netting but they still pock through that...maybe one of those things that squirts water upon movement detection.. good luck
Mine have been dessimated by disease which sadly, there is nothing that can be done to eradicate.
some years ago had a lot of frog and toads ,in fact over run with them.Then suddenly they start to die .I and my neighbour found frogs dieing ,they had blood on them . .they then declined drastically and I thought we would not see any more but they came back slowly but their numbers were never the same again.It was reported at the time as some sort of virus.