Pond life

 Just a few little snaps of the frogs that have been in and around the pond this summer! I still don't know/ ever will know if these are the frogs from my frog spawn last year, or new frogs that have found their way to my pond form other means, but anyhow - there are fully grown big frogs in my pond!!!! This excites me way to much i think, but I love knowing that i've managed to make an environment ( I built the pond and planted the trees and bushes around it two summers ago) that actually sustains frog and newt wildlife- I'm feeling pretty nerdy now but I cant express how chuffed I get when I find them hopping around.

This little fella was really lively and wasn't a big fan of having his photo taken so I only snapped a couple before putting him back in the pond. I am already hoping that next year might be the year I have actual frogspawn laid in my pond (opposed to getting it from other ponds) but fingers crossed....

 I love this tree/plant that I planted near the pond. It has such a vibrant pink colour, and has literally tripled it's size since I first had it. It's also really good for bees as they like the pollen from the flowers, so bonus points for that too.

This is only a short post but I just like updating the ponds progress with you all, and how the froglets are getting along :)

Tadpoles to frogs

I'm proud to show off my beautiful little forggies!! They've finally grown legs, arms and look like miniature frogs now :) Their tails are still little stubs, and they have a lot of growing to do - but they no longer look like tadpoles!

I have released all of the grown froggies into the pond now, so they have more room and can live naturally in the wild again. It's half very exciting but also quite sad as i no longer get to see them every morning ... But hopefully they will grow quickly outside and I will see them hopping around outside in no time!

 

You can see here from the scale of my hand how small they are still - But look fully formed and completely like normal frogs. 

Tadpoles 10-/11 Weeks - Leg growth

Exciting news on the tadpole front - The first few legs have started to develop! I love it when tadpoles develop their legs, it means their on their way to becoming frogs and it's so interesting to watch!  I first noticed it just under a week ago, and by last night half of them had at least the start of a pair of legs. 

 Once they develop legs like above, you need to add a rock or something that slopes out of the water so that the tadpoles are able to start leaving the water. As their legs grow their lungs become stronger and are able to breath out of the water, so they need to be able to be go in and out of the water as they please.

Their arms/ front legs or whatever you'd like to call them haven't developed yet so that is the next stage, but it won't be long now until they start looking more froglike and less like tadpoles! 

As you can see here they still have long tails, which eventually ware down as the limbs grow as they will no longer be needed.

Once again I will keep you updated!

Tadpoles Progress - 9 weeks

Just a little update on how the tadpoles (Poles) are doing...

They are roughly 9 weeks old, Ive had them for 8 weeks and they were born roughly a week or two before that, so that's roughly how old they are!

They've doubled in size since I last documented them for the blog, but I'm still waiting for the legs to start growing, which hopefully isn't long now.....

They have fully formed mouths and you can see in some of the pictures their little eyes are more obvious. They are still eating fish food, but I've also been collecting little dead insects and slugs and leaving a few out for them to try too.

Just in case you were wandering, the little thing at the start of his tail unfortunately isn't a leg, that's his erm, bodily waste.. I always get excited thinking they're legs, but they disappear again and I realise I was mistaken.

At this age they still have gills, and their lungs for breathing outside the water are pretty poor, so they still have to remain in the water until the lungs are fully developed. I only took this chap out for a few seconds to photograph, then he was put straight back into the water.

Tadpoles like to eat algae and plants, but they also like to use the pond plants to cling onto and rest on. Eventually when their legs start to develop I will have to include slanting rocks and more plants so they can start to climb out of the water, which I'm really excited for!

I like the curly plant here, it reminds me a bit of lamb's lettuce.

I think their skin is so pretty. It's lightly transparent and at different angles you can see some of their insides developing. I especially like the almost golden speckles they have on their skin at the moment.

This picture is just to highlight the difference in size between the tadpoles. Although they were all laid at the same time, some tadpoles hatch and develop faster than others, I guess that's the same with humans and other animals too, but it's fascinating to watch it through a first hand account! They live in the same conditions, eat the same food etc, yet some are significantly larger and stronger.

 

This guy has a very beady eye.

They are still eating fish food flakes, and getting through a heck of a lot too! I will keep you updated with their progress :)

Blue Planet Aquarium Day

On Saturday Scott and I went to the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire Oaks! It was a really lovely day out, a little expensive, but very interesting! It's really hard to take photo's in the aquarium due to the terrible lighting, but I gave it a go and here are a few pictures of what we saw and got up too!

Shark's are awesome. Pretty scary, but incredible animals! I love this guy's beady little eyes, and his mega fang teeth!

Scott was quite impressed with the sharks too ;) I really like this picture! The coral is pretty, Scott is being... well Scott! And the glistening blue water is lovely.

Sting Rays have the cutest little faces! We got to pet some little rays in the petting area (my favourite surprise surprise) they're skin is very coarse but their little noses are lovely and bob out of the water.

I was really happy to see the crocodile! Can you spot his beady eyes below? It was interesting to see his head on the surface, then look below the tank where the water had refracted his body. He was floated perfectly still for 30 minutes!

Fish, sharks, rays, crocodiles, lobsters, and even snakes, spiders and FROGS! This pleased me greatly. Here are two very chunky looking fellas (toads).
 

I've always had a thing for frogs, especially the blue ones. My grandad took me to the museum in Manchester when I was younger to see the poisonous blue frogs, and I had the poster, along with the Titanic film poster on my bedroom walls for years. They always remind me of him and I love finding them in museums and zoo's.

They had some very small frogs that were incredibly quick at jumping, and a bit of a pain to photograph, but they were beautiful.

Seabear wanted to come... Scott took a few snaps before we left, and this one made me giggle.

They fed the clown fish (nemo fish) when we were by them so they were all fanatically trying to eat the shrimpy white blobs that you can see at the top of the picture.

The yellow and blue colours work so lovely together.

This is the bottom and feet of a duck that was on top of the trout tank. I liked that they included the ducks as part of the display.

Scott likes to read each sign and information card meticulously, whereas I like to dash round quickly to see as much as possible as fast as possible! So this was one of the few pictures I managed to pry him away from the information.

 I really dislike the shops in Cheshire Oaks, I don't think I've ever bought anything from there other than food, however, the Cadbury Factory shop is awesome. And they sell Snapple which I had when I was in America, and it's delicious!

I fell in love with this little fella! He was an inflatable 'Bath predator' and was made of a Matt plastic-y material, SO COOL!! But he was £12 so we had to leave him behind, but one day, I will have a bath predator.

Frogspawn - tadpoles

Ever since I was little, I always wanted a pond, full of frogs, newts and fish! Maybe it came from one of my favourite childhood books/film - Matilda (when she has that cute little newt in the jam jar) or maybe it's just because Ive always liked gross slimy things, but anyway, Ive always wanted one!

Two summers ago a friend gave me a jar full of tadpoles and I was hooked! I spent that summer digging a pond, rearing tadpoles and creating a suitable environment around the pond for them with bushes and plants 

This is a photo from last year of my friend Nigel, who's pond is full annually of frogspawn.

The process starts with frogspawn like the above. You need pond or river water to keep them as tap water contains chlorine which will kill the tadpoles. I keep mine in a large plastic box in our porch.

The interesting thing about tadpoles (I'm a real frog nerd so this kind of things is very exciting) is that when they are grown indoors, their rate of development speeds up by about 3x faster than they would in the wild. It's because they react to the temperature around them, so as it warmer in the house than outside, my tadpoles have developed really quickly!

They spent 1 week in the jelly-like spawn, and between the 1st - 2nd week they began to 'hacth' from the jelly and swim freely. They were much smaller at first, but now after 4 weeks like the above picture, they have doubled in size.

They have a large head, and thin tail, and breathe only under water. Between week 6-8 (indoors) they will begin to form feet, and eventually arms, and will be able to breathe out of the water.

I feed my tadpoles pond plants (algae) but also they eat fish food! I use goldfish's fish food, the flakey variety.

I cant' wait for them to grow legs and arms etc! And I will keep you updated on their progress :)

Other creatures I have in my pond are Newts! I had these from Nigel's pond last year, but they were already fully formed, but occasionally I like to fish them out of the pond to see how big they've got! This little fella had a wonderful orange and black spotted belly.

 I put him in a container for a little while so I could document him, then i put him back in the pond! I don't feed these or do anything special for them, they feed and live of the environment!

 He's just so cute!

I just love nature and bugs, frogs and little creppy thing's. I just find it all so fascinating!

This is my pond! It's now two years old, and eventually I will put the tadpoles/ small frogs into them, but not until they are fully formed :) It's quite simple to make, but does require a lot of enthusiasm! I used rubber lining , and was given a few pond plants by my driving instructor. Unfortunately Seabear (My dog Molly) decided that she wanted to cool down in the pond the other day, and she snapped my water Lillie's! Fortunately the root is still there so they will grow back.. eventually!!