What a marvelous day this has been. First of all, the temperature got up to 78 F today with a perfectly clear sky, bright sun and absolute calm--no wind whatsoever. The pond water is up to 68 F and the goldfish are spawning. I saw four frogs active today and found a male American Toad about in the area around the pond. For those who have seen my videos, you'll remember that my granddaughter brought me a toad late last fall that I put in the aquarium with my hatchling turtles. That toad turned out to be a female and when I put the male toad in with her, he immediately began to "trill" as toads are prone to due during mating season. After a couple of minutes of this behavior, he mounted the female and they have been inseparable :rolleyes: the rest of the day.

My wife and I decided to go for a walk to an area where she had heard frogs and toads calling. The area was flooded a week ago from heavy rains. When we got there, I saw two large masses of frog eggs attached to some grass plants in the temporary pool. I knew the eggs could not last, as the pool was going to dry up in a day or two, so we went home, got collecting materials and the two of us went wading and collecting. Not only did we collect the eggs, but we caught some small green frogs and leopard frogs to add to the pond. Returning home, we placed the frog eggs in the pond, as well as the frogs we caught. I took the toad into the house and placed it in the aquarium with the other two amorous toads. The mounted male was now disengaged and the two males began to serenade us and the female toad. I managed to video tape these cacophonous vocalizations, which I will share with you when I can download from my camera, upload to YouTube and link via this thread. Might take a day or two.

In the meantime, one male has remounted the female and the other male is now continuing his calls for a mate. It is really something to hear the toad calling from the aquarium in my kitchen. Tomorrow, all three will go into the pond to pursue what little toadies do in the spring. Hopefully, my pond will soon be alive with both frog and toad tadpoles which will help remove some of the algae in the pond.

It has truly been the DAY OF THE AMPHIBIANS here at the Perry house and pond.
Ain't life grand when you have critters around? :)

Don

Now I am envious Don!

I have been scouting out some local natural ponds and within the next couple of weeks plan to go on a tadpole or egg hunt. I would love to have a few stick around my pond.

man I have been trying to catch the toad mating all this month, working third shift i hear them at night but in the morning it drops to cold and they stop >< Last year i missed it, other year has been by far the best saw about say 25 pairs mating and other males all around it was amazing


So jealous of you

Oh watch out btw, I have bullfrogs and green frogs in my pond, they eat the tadepoles

Wow I wish I could run into a situation like that. Would definatly do the same. One of the ponds I am building is just for frogs (no fish allowed) signs will be posted. I also have to import frogs since there are no natural ponds or streams for miles of my home. All I have now are two Bullfrogs in my small pond. Wish I could get some green and leopard frogs but never see them for sale as tad poles.

Fm3

Really? If you go to a petstore and they are selling tadpoles, they never say what frog they are, but 9 out of 10 times its Green frog tadpoles, other is chance of Bullfrog tadpoles

It's OK if the frogs eat some of the tadpoles; they can't get them all. Last year, when the toads layed eggs, there were about 30,000 tadpoles that resulted. Frogs, fish and turtles ate tadpoles to their hearts' content, but I still ended up with thousands upon thousands of toadlets moving out into the neighborhood. There are at least that many frog eggs in the mass I put into the pond, so I figure it will result in many froglets to drive the neighbors nuts. By the way, I looked at the egg mass today and the developing tads are already elongated (having started as black dots) and are beginning to wiggle and practice swimming. Another day or two and they will all hatch and begin munching algae.

Don

Hey Don,
I know nothing much about tadpoles or frogs, but you seem to! LOL....So, if I go out and snag either some eggs or tads for my pond, how do I know what kind I am getting? Is there some way of identifying eggs, other than guessing? I don't even know what kinds of frogs we have around here! :o

Derrick

Hey Derrick I watched a program on Frogs last night on animal planet. Very interesting they had segments on so many frogs from around the world it boggles the mind but they did have Flying frogs. Get one of those and maybe you can get be featured in a Canadian gardener mag. too. :lol:

Most nursery's sell tad poles here in the states as well as aquarium/pet stores have you tried them?

Fm3

No aquarium/pet stores too close by here!

I don't mind going out and "harvesting" some on my own anyway. At least that way I can be certain that they are a natural breed and wont harm anything when they go hoping away!

Flying frogs eh? Sounds fun!! :P

No way to tell egg apart or even tadpoles really, toads lay strings, frogs lay mass, only thing you can tell with eggs




Sorry there laying all together but you can tell there in strings

Cool Pictures! I have to be totally honest with all you frog/toad loving people......THEY SCARE ME!!! I screamed OH GROSS at just seeing these pictures of them. I have a lot of toads living at the clay pond, when I do my daily walk around (in the summer) the toads jump around under my feet and scare the HE** out of me. I scream at the top of my lungs everytime one moves. I HATE THEM!!! There is no way I would pick one up and "feel it" to see if it ate something it wasn't supposed to :blink: HOWEVER, I do LOVE the babies and ooohh and aaahhhh over them, I have picked up several during the summer and lovingly carried them back to the pond but......once they get big and I mean they get HUGE here I hate them! I will make sure to post a picture this summer of what I am talking about ;)

I am adding to this post because I was suprised that I wrote how I feel about frogs because growing up I collected frogs, every kind of frog thing I could get my hands on actually, I had everything frog. I even raised tadpoles and played with frogs and toads all the time. Worse yet and I hesitate to say this.....my nickname since I was little has been Toad or affectionately Toadie. Do you know how horrifying it was to be a teenager and your Mom pipes up and calls "hey Toad". Of course all my friends started calling me that and I STILL get called that and I am 40 this year. NO WONDER I hate toads......I think I need therapy now, just talking about this horrifies me :blink: :blink: :blink:

KK
I don't know how to ID eggs as to species other than frog eggs are in a mass or blob of jelly and toad eggs are in a long string of jelly. I can only assume that if the mass of eggs is as large as a grapefruit, the species of frog that layed them must be one of the larger species, such as a green frog or a bull frog. The picture attached is of toad eggs deposited in my pond last spring. This string gave rise to thousands of tadpoles and eventually thousands of toadlets.

Don

By the way, it was another beautiful day today, with the temperature in the mid 70's. Water temperature is up to 68 F., the fish are spawning, the toads are trilling and the turtles are basking. Daffodils are blooming around the pond and the mass of frog eggs I put in this week are now hatching and tiny tadpoles are now beginning to feed on the algae. I did a lot of work outside, including installing a new pump that runs dead silent (my old one was beginning to exhibit bearing wear noise). But, I also spent a great deal of time just sitting by the pond, watching the fish, frogs and turtles and listening to the sound of the waterfall. Even fell asleep in my pondside swing with my two Shi-tzu's napping beside me. God, retirement is great! The sanity I lost while teaching junior high kids for 34 years is being found again. Maybe I won't deserve the moniker "Maestro loco" much longer.

Don

Well Don, since KK is now to be refered to only as Toadie, I don't see why we can't find you a new nickname as well! :lol:

Derrick

OH DON"T YOU DARE Derrick! I will never forgive you!

Hey Don, that is great your place is so warm and nice and the animals are spawning and you got to nap by your pond and so I was just wondering if you would like to adopt me cause THIS is what I woke up to this morning :(
P.S. lost another fish in the deck pond last night
P.P.S. Before someone asks what that weird "cross like" thing is in the middle of the pond, it is part of my dock that I couldn't get out of the clay this fall and it has started to rise from the depths!

Oh my, KK sometimes when you are tramatized as a teenager you should not later in life open up to those that just might on occasion send you back to the therapist couch. :P

My youngest daughter when she was 7-8 years old would take the pan fish remains from when I was cleaning them and pry out the eye balls. Now she is all grown up 15 1/2 and will not even touch a worm. HAHA By the way that pic is depressing. T****e ;)

LOL, that is too cute! I don't feel so bad now! Yes, the weather here is very depressing! I just scooped out the body of my second dead fish :-( That is even a stretch for me as it makes me very squeemish. GROSS

KK

The picture of your pond in snow makes me sick. I just couldn't handle any more snow. Our weather is still very warm, but the forecast is for temps to drop to the mid 40's for highs next Monday and Tuesday (with the possibility of snow flurries). I don't think my turtles and frogs are going to like that one bit. Fortunately, it will only last two days and the temps will then go back up. I hope your snow melts quickly and you can get out into that obviously big pond.

Don

Cool pics CG! You should have gave the frogs in the first pic a little more privacy as they were in a romantic way! ;) :lol:
Thanks for much for sharing them. :)
Tia

I posted this link in another spot, but I thought I ought to post it here with the original thread, too. This is one video of the toads that I had in my aquarium the other day. They have since been relegated to the pond area outside, as they contiuned this activity all night long the day I took this video.

Toadie--er---KK---er----Elaine, this one's for you.

Click on the link below to view the video.

Toadie Serenade


Don

LOL LOL LOL, you are terrible!!! That is some noise that little guy can make, I have never seen anything quite like that before! I am sure your wife is happy you put them outside! I can't imagine she finds the serenading too romantic!!! ;) I turned my laptop up as loud as it would go and let it play. My husband wondered what the He** I was listening too!

Here's another one I just finished. KK, ask you DH what he thinks this toad is doing?

Toad Adjusting His Underwear?

Don

KK

Actually, my wife loves the critters more than I. She used to help me collect specimens when I was taking Aquatic Biology as a grad student. When we go to northern Wisconsin collecting, she is the official "netter" when we're out in the sloughs catching frogs and turtles. Her tolerance is the reason we've been married 45 years.

Don

This is the third, and last, that I will post a link to:

Toad song and my dog's response

One of my Shi-Tzus didn't like the toad making such a racket. You can hear him in the background making his opinions known.

Don

Oh my gosh, those videos are too priceless. Typical man that frog.....always sticking his hands down there to re arrange the goods! I am with the dog! I would find that song annoying after a few times, LOL. I think you and your wife are a match made in frog heaven :D

Did you release the toads?

Painted4Life

Yes, they are now in the pond area doing what good little toadies do best--making new little toadies.

FIY. The female toad was brought to me as a tiny little toad by my granddaughter, who is a bigtime toad lover. She found the little thing frozen in a windowwell late last fall. I put her (the toad) into the aquarium with my hatchling Western Painteds and she resided on the floating turtle dock the whole winter, where she grew to adult size on a diet of mealworms, waxworms and sundry beetles and fishing worms. The males were captured at a temporary pool of flood water where I had gone to collect frog eggs that had been deposited there and had little chance of survival. I put them in the aquarium temporarily for my granddaughter to see and that action resulted in their immediately taking notice of the female as they were both males. That is how I got the videos. The males were only in the aquarium one day and night and then all three, including the female that spent the winter in the aquarium, were relocated to my pond area, which is surrounded with a block wall and contains a rocky, niche-filled environment conducive to toadie happiness.
All toads that I find, I place inside the pond wall to encourage breeding in my pond. Toads, both adult and newly metamorphosed toadlets are able to escape the bounds of the pond, which they do eventually. Many stay, however, in the pond area and in my yard and my neighbors yards, where they do a marvelous job of reducing the population of insect pests. I haven't seen a single earwig around the yard since the toads started reproducing in the pond. I like to think of them as nature's earwig vacuums.

Don

Im surprised the toad survived in the tank, toads except for when breeding hate water and try to get out of the rain etc.. Usually when there in large amounts of water the toads body will absorb to much water and kill it.

Painteds4Life

The toad was not in a fish aquarium; it was in a turtle habitat that contained a floating turtle dock. It was quite happy sitting on this dock, ate ravenously and grew a tiny toad of about 1 inch length to a mature adult of more than 3 inches. It would occasionally enter the water, but spent 99% of its time on the dry dock. It was so accustomed to my feeding it that it frequently took mealworms from my fingers before I could place them on the dock. You can see a video of the toad on my site at: http://donaldperry.spaces.live.com

Don