The UK weather has been punishing for humans and wildlife recently and, although I have been topping up the ponds with the remainder of the rainwater in the butts and also adding some tap water that has been left to stand, all three ponds are low. The pictures shown below are from a few days ago, so the situation is now considerably worse.
I’m aware that many birds and insects are depending on our ponds at the moment, so I decided to create a small temporary pond area in the shade of the flowering cherry, closer to the house. This part of the garden is always at least in partial shade. I used potting containers from the shed and collected stones and gravel and broken pot crocks to provide an instant habitat. I used some water from Tiny Pond and some of the tap water that had been standing in buckets. I also added pond weed and a plant from Lion Pond to create shade.
I carefully lifted the plant from Lion Pond and placed it in the middle of the larger tray. As I did this, a little frog jumped out from the basket into the new pond. It didn’t seem pleased, having been disturbed. I made a video of it exploring the perimeter.
I have a theory that this little frog decided to find its way home because, much later in the afternoon, John found a same colour same size frog on the garden steps near to the garage below Lily Pond. He managed to catch it and hand it to me. I laid my hand on the surface of Lily Pond and it hopped off onto a lily pad and then hopped again into the cool of the reeds. Hopefully, all’s well that ends well.
FROG BLOG 