A sad tale of Scottish frogs
By mad
10 comments
My daughter is so sad about losing over 40 frogs to the severe winter, that she is filling-in her pond now.
Her pond was badly frozen, and it was almost impossible for her to keep a breath hole open in the quite thick ice. She has no electricity going to the pond, and lives in an upstairs flat (they call it an Upper Cottage in Scotland.)
When the thaw came properly, the smell given off by the pond increased to unbearable levels, so she began to clear it to see why. In the end she removed over 40 dead frogs, after emptying the whole pond bucket by bucket. There were roughly 20 live ones, and she carefully transferred them to a piece of overgrown spare land. She had to bury the corpses deeply, as the smell was so bad, people several houses away smelled it. Naturally she’s concerned that the live ones won’t have anywhere to spawn, but feels she has no choice. So sad, as her pond was lovely and really successfull
I have a photo of it on my homepage, I don’t know whether I could transfer it to here.
The focal point of the garden has gone now, but she feels she had no choice’.
21 Mar, 2010
0 likes
More blog posts by mad
Previous post: Out of hibernation
Next post: Problems adding photos to blogs
Comments
So sorry to hear of this Mad, your daughter must be very upset at the loss of so many frogs. Would somebody else take the live ones, just a thought.
21 Mar, 2010
Couldn't she just filled and planted up the pond again and put the live frogs back in?
21 Mar, 2010
That's sad. Pitty she decided to get rid of the pond, although she must have been upset by what happened.
21 Mar, 2010
The frogs will be ok Mad as they will find new water by them selves I have never had frog spawn but the frogs and newts just came. The gas build up is some thing we all fear in a tough winter.
21 Mar, 2010
Clarice, she had a rubber ball in it, but apparently it wasn't enough in those Scottish temperatures. I don't know how to transfer a picture from there to here.
It was such a hard horrible job emptying it Megan, she couldn't do anything else but put them somewhere safe at that moment. She was knee deep in stinking slime.
Yes she is sad to lose her pond, but can't face anything like that again, so she's filled it in. It is harder to come down her outside steps, unlock her gate and go to her pond, than for us to just walk outside, so I think she feels she just daren't risk it again.
Yes Drc the gas build up must have been lethal.
21 Mar, 2010
Your poor daughter, what a horrible job and so sad for all, it has been exceptionally cold though and Scotland have suffered more than most.
21 Mar, 2010
Such a shame Mad, I looked at your pictures it was a lovely pond
22 Mar, 2010
What a sad story Mad, I do remember seeing pictures of your daughters pond and it was lovely, can understand her feeling upset about having to fill it in.
22 Mar, 2010
That is such a shame Mad and I suspect a lot have perished this winter but afraid thats natures way, the slime out of the ponds does smell I know but it doesn`t last long once it settles again, as has already been said the live ones will be ok., hopefully your daughter will make use of that area in another way and still get enjoyment from it.......
22 Mar, 2010
Recent posts by mad
- Waste not want not
6 Sep, 2010
- Some photos of the house in Italy
13 Aug, 2010
- My daughter in Italy
12 Aug, 2010
- Big baby teeth, and all.
10 Jul, 2010
- An Optical illusion - I hope
8 Jul, 2010
- Chelsea
25 May, 2010
How sad, you could transfer the photo from your home page to here, but in winter i just put a ball in my pond and all my fish have survived, think if it was a big pond i'd put a kiddies big plastic ball in it.
21 Mar, 2010