We’ve been away for a few days, so as soon as we’d unpacked, I was out to check on the state of the ponds, even before having a cup of tea…
The water level wasn’t too bad but blanket weed had taken over Tiny Pond and Lion Pond, so I set about removing it with hands and also twisting it out with a bit of a fallen tree branch. Hundreds of tiny bryozoans came out clinging to the blanket weed. I checked that the pond doesn’t need so many of them and then, after leaving the weed for a while to allow pond snails to self-rescue, I added it all to the compost.
Once I’d cleared out the worst of the weed, I topped up all three ponds with water from the four butts in the yard, with John’s help. Then I left everything to settle for a while and browsed through the photos I’d taken on our tour around some of the most impressive cathedrals in the country.
I went out later in the evening to see how things had settled and found one of the resident frogs basking in Lion Pond, lovey stripey legs visible in the now-much-clearer water. As usual, s/he kept a close eye on me and allowed me to take a photo.
Just before calling it a day, I did a little dead-heading around Lily Pond and decided to lift the rock to see if the large frog from Blog 93 was still there…
It wasn’t there and, in its place was a very odd looking fattish, reddish-brown frog instead. Of course, once I looked closer and thought about it a bit, this wasn’t a frog at all, but a decent-sized little toad. My first sighting of a toad in any of the ponds! I’m not sure how he got there (pretty sure its a male), because I hadn’t seen any of the telltale strings of spawn, so it’s likely he’s a visitor from the neighbour’s carp pond or another local pond I’m not aware of.
A handsome beast (eye of the beholder and all that) and a welcome sign that the ponds are healthy and supporting a good range of wildlife. And definitely proving that, if you build it, they will come.
FROG BLOG 