I dug out and maintain two fishless small ponds and a short connecting creek in my back yard. I keep fish out because the tiny native chorus frogs breed there. The frogs, and their tadpoles and eggs are so small that everything larger than an ant preys on them, including spiders, wasps, dragonflies, snails, water bugs, juncoes, bullfrogs, coons, possums, skunks, and squirrels.
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I watch the ponds closely to discourage predators because they could quickly wipe out these small tadpoles and frogs. Only one in 100 tadpoles survives to become a frog. However I’ve never actually seen a critter prey on a tadpole.
Tadpoles are especially vulnerable when they become froglets with nascent limbs. They stop eating as their internal organs reform.
This year an unexpected adversary killed several morphing frogs. I’d never seen that before. Heat did it.
The temperature reached a record 106 degrees F the first week of July, maybe for the first time ever in this area. Some of the froglets weren’t ready for it.
Thanks for reading;
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN
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