Froggers

 When this post goes up we will have been in our new home for just over a year.  If you are a regular reader you'll know that one of the things that came with the house was a raised ornamental pond with approximately 2 dozen goldfish (dependent on Bob, the neighbourhood Bengal) and a few frogs that have taken up residence.

The pond has been a steep learning curve for us.  We knew nothing about maintaining them. Waterlilies will take over if you give them half a chance.  Blanketweed needs controlling, UV lamps need changing...it goes on.

What has been interesting is watching the annual cycle of the pond.  The fish stay to the depths during winter and don't feed and we wondered if any of the frogs that had survived (again, local cats seemed to like nothing better than to  reduce the population) would return to spawn.

In February, it started to look hopeful with the sighting of a frog at the base of the pond wall.

Then, just a few days later, the first clump of spawn followed.

We were also surprised one morning to actually see a frog laying spawn in the pond.  I couldn't get to close to it as it dove down as soon as I got near to it. Mornings, just after dawn seemed to be their preferred time to lay.

When the tadpoles started to hatch a few weeks later, there seemed to be thousands of them.  They appeared to feed of the spawn cases before they eventually disappeared down into the water.  We would see them occasionally, usually against the weed at the edges of the pond where the green background made them stand out.  It is surprisingly difficult to spot them.

In the last 6 weeks or so, we haven't seen a single one.  Nothing that  resembed a tadpole or a small frog.  We don't know if the goldfish have feasted on them or they have eaten each other, which is something that they can do.  Perhaps some have survived down among the silt at the bottom of the pond.

What we do know, is that the frogs have returned.  We have three that we know of that have made themselves at home.

There are a pair that stick together and a single larger frog that seems content with its own company.

Hopefully this year we have a better grasp of pond management and have added more oxygenating plants and keep up to date with the general welfare of the creatures that call it home.

Table Manners

Wildlife in public parks tend to be a little more tolerant of humans trooping around the various footpaths.  This lets you get a little closer to the subject.  This squirrel, for example.  He didn't seem overtly concerned by my proximity for the most part.

April Power

The Thorseby Country Show has for as long as we have been going been held in late February.  I struck me as a strange time to have a large show because of the variability of the weather.  I always thought that it should be held later in the year when the weather was warmer and hopefully more reliable.

Well, this time around, the show was moved the weekend of 9th and 10th April and it was a lot better for it.  We attended on the Sunday and the visitor numbers seemed to be substantially up on previous years.  The fine April weather helping to a good turn out.

I've posted about Thorseby Show before (link here).  This year for the first time we actually went in the morning as opposed to mid afternoon so got to see some of the displays that was going in the main display ring.

The first display were Stunt Mania, a motor cycle stunt team who where impressive to watch.

 The climax of the stunt show was the jumping over the truck and trailer, length ways.

Something We had heard about on Television but never really seen was a relatively new sport called Horse boarding where I horse and jockey pull a board rider around the area through a series of gates.  It was fast and action packed (very easy for the board riders to come to a crashing halt).

Fowl Play

We've had a good friend staying with us recently and as we also had the week off we opted for an afternoon out and paid another visit to Rufford Abbey.  I have posted pictures from here before (you can find them here) but this time I actually brought my camera with me rather than relying on my mobile phone.

I've grouped the photos together and decided to split them into three separate posts.  This one is on the wild fowl that call Rufford and its lake home.