Re: Frogs for garden pond

We made a new pond last September as we have moved house. Our previous pond had about 10 frogs which produced plenty of spawn each year. We filled in the old pond as the new owner did not want it and we took the frogs to friends ponds. Our friends did give us some spawn this spring but it had died possibly because of a cold snap.
We wanted to have frogs in our new pond, but none have arrived as I don't think there are any other ponds in our area.There does not appear to be any tadpoles in our area of Norfolk.  How do we populate our pond? 

Jane

Think its just a case of letting nature take its course.

Try some spawn next year when the pond has matured,  Its just patience

 Ray

I would say give it two or even three years....they will come eventually

As the others have said, just let nature take it's course and you'll find frogs (or maybe even newts) will arrive eventually.  Of course, if you happen to hear of anyone filling in their pond that has frogs there is no reason not to go rescue those ones!  

Thanks for all your replies on this lack of visiting frogs to our new pond, I'll wait and see what happens next Spring.

Frogs find ponds by scent;- there's a particular kind of algae which forms the first food for tadpoles, & this gives off an odor which frogs can detect from a considerable distance. A new pond won't have this yet, but as it matures & naturalises, it will begin to attract them eventually.

Toads are a different thing altogether, & will attempt to return to the pond in which they hatched, giving rise to some spectacular migrations in the spring. If you also wish to establish them in your pond, you'll need to gather a couple of strings of toad spawn from somewhere they already inhabit. I did this around 15 years ago, so we always have tiny toadlets in late spring, & a population of adults around the garden during temperate months.

The best suggestion is to make sure there's plenty of dense planting around two sides of a wildlife pond, in order to give emerging baby amphibians plenty of cover from which to disperse on wet nights. If you can make a corridor of planting from the pond to a hedge, this is even better for reducing predation.

Hope this is of help,

Chris

We have no ponds in the surrounding gardens and ours is pretty much sealed by fences. I put in a new small pond last year. Within a week a frog had found it. Over the winter there were at least 4 frogs, 2 toads and about 15 newts. All of them must have been living happily in the garden for some time.

Did get some frog and newt spawn but it was all eaten before hatching!

I have a pond in my garden and I believe I have a parent and a baby frog in. Ive only seen 2 so far. But like the others say, nature takes time and I had to wait ages for my frog to take resident.

Also Id say its not a good idea to transfer frogs to other ponds as they can contaminate the pond and create disease and kill the frogs. So Id wait until they come naturally. Would be great to see pic's though.