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I converted a portion of my side yard into what I hope will be a frog hideout. The Frog Mitigation Area is about 400 square feet of fenced-in, level ground, and includes a 6 x 6 pond that is 1.5 feet deep, fed by a 30 foot steam, 1.5 feet wide and 4 inches deep, flowing from an artificial waterfall.
I built it, and the frogs came. But what else is coming by? Continue reading below the orange tangles of karmic destiny, and help me puzzle this out.
I installed a pump in the pond, that recirculates the water back to the waterfall. I secreted the pump in a open plastic box, hidden under two thin slabs of mica rock, each about 1 by 1.5 feet. Here is how it is supposed to look:
These slabs are under about 2-3 inches of water. But here's what it looked like late one morning a couple of days ago:
Plainly some critter knocked those slabs askew. I re-set the slabs and put a 5-lb. brick on the slab edges. The right hand slab was almost tipsy with the brick on it. The left hand slab was still steady.
So I am guessing that the critter weighed at least five pounds. A Great Blue Heron weighs about 5-7 lb., according to the internet. I can picture a large heron carefully stepping on the edge of one of those slabs,and tipping it, and scrambling to stand on the other, and tipping it too. Herons have knocked my pond edge stones into the water before.
A coon is my other prime suspect. Yet, in the past, when a coon visited, lots of stuff got torn up; plants eviscerated, fish ripped gut to gizzard, and so on.
Yet in this instance, nearby pond plants weren't even knocked over.
However, I haven't seen a heron in the yard for months, or a coon for years.
I walked around the back yard. I still have frogs. (Eek, splash) Oh, here's a potted plant tipped over. Was it the wind? Here's a light knocked down, that was sunk into the ground. Could a heron have done all of that?
I do some chores, including moving topsoil, and discover a vein of sand left over from a long-forgotten garden experiment. Aha! I will lay a sand layer near the pond, brush it smooth, and see whose footprints show up! Capital plan, Eh, Watson?
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Thank you for reading. I'll work this morning so I'll respond to comments before lunchtime, PDT.