| disappearing tadpoles
Last year all my tadpoles seemed to disappear and not develop into froglets. You all gave me wonderful advice about cutting out a lot of the weed - and being more patient with my searching. So I did as I was told and I did find a couple of froglets. But numbers were seriously down on previous years.
This year it is the same - I started with five large clumps of spawn - masses of tadpoles, but hardly saw any developing back legs. There are very few tadpoles left - this evening I have seen three large ones (no back legs even) and one very small froglet.
The pond looks really healthy and is supporting life. There are lots of efts - spotted about twenty tonight - so it can't be diseased. There are some big frogs too.
I also have a tiny pond and I haven't seen a tadpole or froglet recently in this one. But several big frogs look happy.
Why is this happening and what can I do? I am really pleased about the newts but very sad about my lack of frog - or rather potential frog.
My pond is about 5ft x 4 ft and not overshadowed by trees. The smaller one is quite shady and only about 2ft diameter  |