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I constructed and expanded the Frog Mitigation Area in my side yard near Portland Oregon two years ago. It currently includes two small ponds (4 x 4 and 6 x 6) and a waterfall discharging into 20-foot-long stream, 2 feet wide, one foot deep,that connects the ponds. Importantly, I kept fish out of these ponds, so the frog eggs and tadpoles have a better chance of maturing without getting eaten.
Here is the original Pear Pond and the creek. About 2200 tadpoles recently hatched there. Last year there were about 1500.
Here is Upper Pear Pond and the waterfall. About 200 tadpoles currently occupy it. I dug this out last fall so this is its first year to host tadpoles.
The frogs began arriving in the middle of February, 2017, about the same date as in 2016. However they established a presence more than before. Frogs vocally occupied the ponds all day and all night long. I could easily see them in the ponds, and I often find them in the grass and among the garden plants. Previously, I might go weeks without seeing a frog.
I noticed that in the older, larger pond, a male frog seemed to swim up to every other frog and start wrestling with them. If they were female, he would mate, and if not, he’d kick ass. I named him OG for Original Gangster.
Another alpha frog also drove out all of his male competition in the Upper Pond. As a result, there was only one male frog in each of the two FMA ponds.
The defeated male frogs, however, regrouped and marshaled sufficient forces to re-occupy the nearby Cattail and Lily Ponds in my yard. I hear them in both ponds every night now. They’d never been established in the Cattail Pond before.
Goldfish and unauthorized bullfrogs roam the Cattail and Lily Ponds, and prey heavily on the smaller chorus frogs, wiping them out of the Lily Pond years ago.
I think the chorus frogs’ move back into these additional ponds indicates their numbers increased. I saw fertilized frog egg sacs in both ponds for the first time, and moved those to the FMA. I haven’t seen any new egg sacs for weeks although the male frogs are still active in all ponds.
The tadpoles in the Mitigation Area began hatching in April this year, compared to the middle of March in 2016. Average air temperatures are down 5 degrees compared to 2016. Water temperature in the FMA never exceeded 51 degrees this season. This winter Run of frogs has apparently adapted to mate, and to have eggs hatch in very cold weather; even during a couple of Spring nighttime freezes.
Four new bullfrogs have just shown up. If ignored, they will eat a swath through my infant tadpoles and tiny frogs. Yet I fear not because I know a deus ex machina waits in the mists on the neighbor’s roof, watching for the bullfrogs’ approach.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN
What have you noted in your area or travels? Hopefully a weedy garden was not among your visits. As usual, please post your observations and general location in your comments. I’m losing power tomorrow so I may not reply promptly.
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