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MKG wrote:@GA - you know, I've watched that Freudian frog a few times now, in a puzzled manner. Only tonight did it dawn on me to put the bloody headphones on. I really wish I hadn't

Wildlife moves fast, doesn't it? The pond has been filled for less than 24 hours. Already, it has a small population of water beetles.

Mike

They must be the equivalent of the german sun-lounger hoggers then! Did they bring their towels?

I'm glad I just saw this thread.

Update - I know you've all been hanging on the edges of your seats

Nearly there. The pond surround is now complete and looks like a cross between Stonehenge and a Graeco-Roman ruin. The stone otter and stone frog (OH, not me) sort of soften the image a little. One iris now sits in the shallows. Others to come. Today, we inoculated the water with a bucketful of sludgey liquid from the bottom pond, after suitably sieving it so that we didn't accidentally take any tadpoles (which wouldn't survive in the new pond yet - but oh, how they giggled at being poured from one container to another!). But the water beetles are still there, now joined by a water boatman and, after the inoculation, a population of mini-wiggley-things. The blackbirds have already discovered how the Stonehenge end works, running wild amongst the archways (which are actually access points for frogs, hedgehogs, etc.).

So the animals seem to like it. Just no frogs. I think I may do a couple of forced introductions over the next few days - just as soon as I find where they're hiding this time.

Mike

Oh dear - for those of you who may be planning a new pond, a cautionary tale. Yesterday, I went up to survey the pond - and it was BRIGHT GREEN!!!!! So there's me running round like a headless chicken screaming "me poor taddies'll die!!!!" and OH (much more sensible) running after me saying that they wouldn't. She's right. It's all part of the evolution of a totally new pond. Yesterday, it was choked with algae. Today, it's nearly all gone.

Apparently it's the nutrients in the water, which are always at too high a level initially. The algae blooms, uses up the excess nutrients and promptly dies off to a less visible level. Now I know.

Mike

There.... now you should have read up on that before you started, you know.

Then again if, like me, you 'do'... and then read the destructions when it all goes tits up.......

... and today marks complete success

The water is, once again, crystal-clear, the water lily has flowered (only a small flower, but I'm not complaining), and this morning I spotted our first froglet - no tail, perfectly-formed and bloody quick.

The frog factory is back in operation

Mike

Red letter day - I found a fully-formed froglet hopping around in the orchard. There's only one place he could have come from, as the older pond is too far away for a froglet. We have lift-off

Mike

So you can change the thread title to "Not so guilty" now, eh?

Good idea!

Mike

Whoop whoop!!! So glad u got it all sucessfully completed and that the froggies have lifted the silence treatment!! Xx