When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

"Jake" wrote in message
...
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Lucky wee froglets to be in *your* garden
--
--

http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 27/07/2012 17:15, Ophelia wrote:


"Jake" wrote in message
...
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Lucky wee froglets to be in *your* garden
My tadpoles in the pond all disappeared, suppose it could be to do with
the fish and newts, but the ones in the greenhouse are thriving, they
know when they are onto a good thing, no insects but I just wish they
had an inclination for snails

"Corporal Jones" wrote in message
...
On 27/07/2012 17:15, Ophelia wrote:


"Jake" wrote in message
...
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Lucky wee froglets to be in *your* garden

My tadpoles in the pond all disappeared, suppose it could be to do with
the fish and newts, but the ones in the greenhouse are thriving, they know
when they are onto a good thing, no insects but I just wish they had an
inclination for snails

lol so... out with your chair and whip.. start training them

--
--

http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 27/07/2012 18:07, Jake wrote:
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.


No nearby ponds, but this morning while mowing the orchard lawn I
accidentally mowed a frog. One of my chickens spotted the carnage and
grabbed a frog's leg, running away with it in her beak, hotly pursued by
the other chickens wanting to steal her tasty morsel!

Seems chickens eat just about anything. Discovered today that they also
like to eat the small seeds on "sticky-bobs" weeds too.

On 27/07/2012 20:09, Janet wrote:
In article ,
am says...

On 27/07/2012 18:07, Jake wrote:
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,
check carefully before you mow around it!

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.


No nearby ponds, but this morning while mowing the orchard lawn I
accidentally mowed a frog. One of my chickens spotted the carnage and
grabbed a frog's leg, running away with it in her beak, hotly pursued by
the other chickens wanting to steal her tasty morsel!

Seems chickens eat just about anything.

Ours used to specially look for and enjoy, nests of fieldmice.

At our last place I noticed the chickens running about in a frenzy,
feeding, and found they were hunting and stuffing their faces with
froglets the size of my thumb nail. The froglets had not hatched
anywhere on our 4 acres or the surrounding area; I think they had been
washed down a field drain that opened on our patch. The same field drain
(when dry) once delivered a large white ferret:-)


Ah! That's good to know. I've got problems with mice living in the
vegetable garden. There are lots of holes in the ground around 1 1/2
inches diameter. The mice have been a plague and I think they have been
responsible for eating small bean seedlings amongst other things. I
accidentally dug up a mouse nest with the rotovator the other year,
several young inside it. I've been letting the chickens roam free in the
vegetable garden the last few days... hopefully they may rid me of some
of these pests.

It's normal behaviour, surely?

Maybe you have a better hatching rate than normal, maybe in previous years your lawn has been shorter at the critical time and they haven't lingered. But basically they'll be moving from the pond around now and going off to forage in moist vegetation. I don't find that many in the grass - one half is too short, the other half doesn't get cut till September - but I disturb a lot while I'm picking the alpine strawberries.

A friend of mine had your trouble, and was so alarmed that she didn't cut the grass for the rest of the year. Unfortunately she lives on one of those "exclusive" estates where people obsess about the tidiness of their neighbours' gardens, and she was persona non grata ;-)

On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:07:15 +0100, Jake wrote:

When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get
going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully
before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to
the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just
started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.

Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those
because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"
long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my
pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about
30 metres!

I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such
numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.

In my experience, froglets 'migrate' out of the pond once metamophosed. One July after a
heavy shower, our lawn was like a Biblical plague. There were scores of tiny frogs all
heading East. Another year we had your problem and luckily we had friends round who were
daft enough to ruffle the grass in front of us and move evry froglet to safety. It made
mowing fun for once!

On Friday, July 27, 2012 5:07:15 PM UTC+1, Jake wrote:
When I cut the lawns, I usually heave out the lawn mower and get

going. But having found a tiny froglet yesterday, I checked carefully

before starting to mow. Before long I had collected, and returned to

the pond, about 20 little froglets of varying sizes. Had I just

started cutting, I would have had 20 little chopped up froglets.



Later, I found some on one of the front lawns and I only noticed those

because they were surrounded by a group of baby slow worms (about 3"

long) and presumably about to be eaten! If those froglets came from my

pond (and I know of no other in the vicinity), they had migrated about

30 metres!



I've never known them to leave the pond like this, let alone in such

numbers. Why they have done so is a mystery.



But the lesson is if you have a pond in which frogs have spawned,

check carefully before you mow around it!


You are lucky to have so many froglets. All of my many tadpoles seem to have since died, though I do have a few young newts.

Doug

Those two facts are probably connected. Newts are voracious eaters of frog tadpoles.