aliens share my pond !!!!!

[shotski]

Hi all

New to this site so hope I am doing this ok.
We moved into our new home last summer in Beds and we have a
medium size pond at the end of the garden.
This spring we had about 30 common frogs turn up and lay spawn
and then vanish. Now we have half a dozen edible/marsh frogs turn
up sitting in the sun. I always knew they were in this country but not
in this area.

Shotski

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by shotski

Hi all

New to this site so hope I am doing this ok.
We moved into our new home last summer in Beds and we have a
medium size pond at the end of the garden.
This spring we had about 30 common frogs turn up and lay spawn
and then vanish. Now we have half a dozen edible/marsh frogs turn
up sitting in the sun. I always knew they were in this country but not
in this area.

Shotski

Can you get some pics of them.

[shotski]

I will try tomorrow after work. the problem is they are very quik, I sneak
down the garden and they all jump in. they are green with a stripe.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by shotski

I will try tomorrow after work. the problem is they are very quik, I sneak
down the garden and they all jump in. they are green with a stripe.

I just googled them and clicked on a pic of someone cutting one up and got a bogus computer virus, alarms were flashing all over saying I had a virus.
The page was bogus..so be careful what you click on.

[~T~]

Seems marsh frogs are becoming more and more common down south.

[Putorius]

Hi Shotski. The frogs in your pond may well be pool frogs. Please report your findings here;

Alien Encounters - Alien Amphibians and Reptiles of the UK

Many thanks.

Your green frogs would have emerged from hibernation later than the common frogs. The common frogs would have dispersed by now and moved to their spring/summer terrestrial habitat. The green frogs are far more aquatic, and will robably stay around your pond all summer. Check out the calls of your frogs, and compare the call with this link to establish which species they are; http://alienencounters.arc-trust.org/marshfrog.html

[shotski]

At last I managed to get a photo of one in the sun

[~T~]

Cool it certainly looks like a marsh frog though water frogs are apparently difficult to identify so I'll let Putorius give thier expert opinon.

You might find this page helpful.

http://www.surrey-arg.org.uk/SARG/08...aterFrogs2.asp

[GCN lova]

looks like a pool or edible frog as marsh frogs are brownish usually.
hope it helps

[Putorius]

Nice image of an animal which is definately from the green or water frog complex. There is no way at all of differentiating for certain from the image alone however. The call is a good way to tell the pool frog from the marsh frog or the edible frog (a hybrid of the two former species) but it of course only works in the case of male animals. The only sure way of telling the three types apart is by examination in the hand i.e; measuring leg length. Of course this is extremely intrusive for the animals themselves and also puts the person holding the frog in a dodgy position technically/legally. It is not crime of the century of course but if someone re-releases a captured individual following measuring leg length, then they have contravined the wildlife and countryside act, and are in effect releasing a potentially invasive species into the British countryside.