Pond has to go

As we have a grandson who has just made up 1year & a baby grandaughter on the way, i have had to make a sacrifice. My back isn't too good these days & to fence the pond off would simply spoil the design, so i have 7 golden & blue orfe to get rid of to a good home, if anyone is interested just email me at daveclarke25@hotmail.com
They are about 16"" in length & 18 years old, so reqire a large pond. There are also 3 fan tailed gold fish, plus the frogs will find their own way i guess!!

Dragon fly

This beautiful dragon fly was flying around my pond the other day from about 3pm onwards, tried to video it but the sun was exceptionally bright & i just couldn't keep track of it so i took a still when it landed. I hope i see another one so as i can do it justice with a better shot!

foxes playing in the evening sun

I know the blog is about pond life, but being a fan of all nature and that this was in our grounds, i had to put it in.

foxes playing in the evening sun

clear water

after the hot spell we had a fortnight ago the weather has turnrd hot and humid once again, but the pond is still clear. one pump which runs 24/7 goes into a small eco filter via a uv, whist another pumps water up to a larger filter, ( a cold water tank), so as i could cut my own inlet & outlet, which only runs from 8am to 8pm & drops into the pond thus providing a bit of oxygen.

Quacking frog

We've had the frogspawn, and the frogs still appear ocasionally on a damp night looking for slugs etc, but they are normal croaking frogs if you know what i mean.
The thing is we have a strange frog which has been resident in our pond for a few years now which does not croak, it "quacks like a duck".
I have walked quietly towards the pond on an afternoon and i hear it in the reeds at one end quacking but i never see it, the illusive quacking frog or whatever it is.
So if anyone reading this blog has any ideas on what species of frog it is, please put us out of our misery, because people must think i'm going quackers(crackers)!
I've seen the site with frog sounds but there's not one like ours. It just does it twice, then goes quiet then two more quacks.

Spring pond activity video

notes on "Spring pond activity" video

Some of my golden orfe, i think one is a blue orfe, & one which looks to have an extra pair of fins looks like a shibumpkin. There are also three gold fish which i cannot believe have lasted this long and also survived the cold spell we have recently come through. Some friends who have ponds have lost most of their fish from the sudden rise in temperature one weekend & then going back down again.
My pond had a thick layer of ice for i don't know how many weeks, plus 4"" of snow most of the time. but i always leave the waterfall running all year round. The pond is 13.6 feet by 6feet wide by about 3foot in depth, so whether the size has saved them, by keeping the temp more constant, i cannot say. I also have not fed them since the end of last september, as they have their own eco system to live in, & i don't ever feed them until the frosts have all but gone.

new pond video

Have just posted new video of all the happenings in my pond the other day.

golden orfe spawning

The frogs are still making a racket at night but i looked out last night about 2am and two pairs of orfe were bombing round the pond rubbing against each other so we'll just have to wait & see if any eggs are visible on the side of the pond in the next few days.

frogspawn

We had the wind howling, the rain lashing down, but did the frogs mind, not at all. We now have two lots of frogspawn in the middle of the pond.
Now i do believe an amateur weather meteorlogical gentlemen from either Lancashire or Yorkshire says that if the frogspawn is at the side of the pond the summer will not be very good, but if it's in the middle we will have a fabulous summer, What!!! we wait with bated breath!

croak croak all night!

Yes, went to bed last night around 11pm & there were at least 15 frogs darting about on the surface, so Spring has sprung, i hope. I don't know where they all come from.

Pond Update

Been getting the pond ready for the warmer weather when the algea will be starting to turn the water into pea soup. In other words the uv has to be plumbed in and this year i'm endeavouring to use just one pump, up into a larger biological filter via the uv.
Previously i had one pump on the uv and a small eco filter, and another one feeding the larger filter, but one of the outlets on one pump has snapped but i can get round it by utilising the fountain exit if the one pump isn't up to the job.
As i said on the pond page of my other blog, the frogs were stirring at the bottom of the pond last week, but i hope they keep down there for a while longer, the randy devils!
The fish are actually quite lively as well,seeing that the water temperature is still only 5 degrees.