Pond Frog

[Catfishnut]

Gordy; you've brought up some interesting points. We used to hear whip-poor-wills, as well as woodcocks, every spring and early summer; I haven't heard either for so long I can't remember! And a local hunters group got together with the government around 1980 and re-introduced wild turkeys from south of the border, and now every time I drive through the countryside I see groups of from a few to maybe 150 birds. Maybe that's what caused the coyote population explosion!! And also, most of the cougar sightings mention a black or very dark animal.
John

John,

You say most of the Cougar sightings up your way mention a black coated one. This is also interesting. A local game warden informed my brother that there were many black cougars around. However, those with black coats are very reclusive and seldom seen. They act differently and live differently. I don't know if that all is true or not as I never found any evidence recorded in writing that it was so. But, obviously a black cat is going to be harder to spot in the dark woods than a golden one. That part of it just makes reasonable sense.

Approximately ten years ago or more, I witnessed a black cougar right here near my cabin. It had flooded that spring and a lot of river fish like carp got trapped in an old oxbox slough. It is listed as a lake on maps, but it is normally dry or very shallow.

Sometime between midnight and two a.m. I was driving out from my cabin to go back to town and saw something very peculiar. All I could see at first appeared to be a carp swimming across the road. Then it stopped. When I got a bit closer, I saw two eyes reflecting the light from my headlights and discovered that it was a black cougar with a 3 to 5 pound carp in its mouth. It had caught it from the slough and was dashing across the road into the corn field with its catch of the day. The cat didn't stop long, just a second or two and then it continued on. It was quite a neat sight, though.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

I remember groundhogs everywhere when I was a kid in the 70's in southern Illinois, but when we moved to south central, none. Used to be quail along dirt roads along fields, you never see them anymore. No more rabbits or pheasants either. Coyotes and fox feast on them, but so do red tailed hawks. When did our wildlife population get out of hand? They said the chemicals used on fields have hurt the bird populations, too. Not sure if the birds eat the bugs with ingested chemicals, or the lack of food source from bugs being killed. You never see the huge garden spiders anymore. They are huge, about the side of a hand, and bright yellow with black stripes. My son things the farm field chemicals have killed them.

A former neighbor, more backwoods hillbilly really, saw a black cougar about 10 years ago. Never said anything, figured no one would believe him. Then, other neighbors saw it, and when the hillbilly guy spotted it a second time, he knew he was not dreaming. I've heard they have re-introduced them to southern Illinois to help with the deer population. Next I suppose will be wolves. Coyotes are huge around my area at times, too. For the most part they are about twice the size of a fox. I'd compare a coyote to a mid-sized German Shepherd. But, I saw that one in a field that I could have sworn was a deer. Had to go inside to get binoculars, and was amazed at it's size. They would come just outside the yard light at night and yip and howl. That's when my son insisted I needed a hand gun since I lived alone. Never did shoot at any animals, though.

Where I live now, plenty of red fox. I know they need to survive and they are taking out lots of the ground birds. The government is paying farmers to let it seed the area next to woods, instead of farming it, and grow ground cover crop that does not get mowed or used. It's simply for the wildlife that have lost their habitat by farmers cutting down trees to farm the areas. They seed about a 50' wide strip all along the woods. That area usually does not grow very good crops anyhow because of the woods sucking the moisture and shading the areas, and hopefully in another 10-15 years we may start seeing more rabbits, quail and pheasants.

When I was in college wolf hybrids were a huge thing! I personally love German Shepherds, but to me, a perfect GS is one that is big, beautiful, very alert, and loves people! I had that perfect dog many years ago, and am searching for another one now. It will have to love people and not be a threat to anyone, but the size and breed alone is enough to make most people think twice before coming to your house. That's how my Shena was, but once I came outside and she knew the people were friends, the game was on and you needed to play ball with her.

Country,

I have definitely observed changes in the wildlife here, too. Some populations have exploded and some seem to be totally gone. I wish it were all a natural thing, but it's not always the case.

Gordy

 

[CountryEscape]

My daughter lives in Utah, near the mountains, and has seen cougar tracks, but then in the mountains you should expect that! She has not seen an actual cat yet, but sooner or later, since she rides horses almost every weekend in the mountains, she probably will! I just hope she's far away from it when she spots it. She does have a pistol, though, thanks to her brother. And, of course, he taught her to shoot it as well. It goes on every trail ride she takes.
I, personally, would love to see a black cougar, just not in my back yard. When I was a child, I had dreams of owning a black panther as a pet when I "grew up". No visions of a big cat in my life any longer, though, but think they are beautiful creatures. To come across one while walking in the woods or riding my horse in a National Forest, that would be somewhat frightening, although I don't think I would turn tail and run. I would probably face it and hope it would back off first! I guess with that attitude, I would hope it was not too hungry.

 

[sissy]

I know what you mean as deer population here has dwindled and I have not seen any groundhogs .I'm up on frogs though LOL .

 

[Rivermist]

I'm going back to the frogs in ponds... just because no Nature doesn't always know what's best.

our air system broke 2 winters ago. The time to receive the deicers it had been 3 days.

We had so many frogs in all our ponds that quickly they got out of oxygen and all died. I removed nearly 100 dead bodies. it's was very upsetting.

So if you have a pond that is gonna freeze and have frogs in there (I think the male bullfrogs spend winter in the water while females go out) just get them out as well.

 

[addy1]

Darn that is a bummer, but nice to know and watch out for.

 

[HSJami]

Here in the desert southwest, we don't get many wild frogs, so when I built my pond in a completely enclosed space, I purchased bullfrog tadpoles. I wound up with 9 bullfrogs, 7 males and 2 females. In spring and summer the males sing all night. I'm in a condo complex, but so far, no one has complained. I guess it's a lot less disruptive than a dog barking in the middle of the night. it's been 4 years now and I'm down to 4 frogs (5 died and were all given appropriate froggie burials in the bog garden). There was no way that the area could support that many frogs, so about once a week, I feed them raw chicken, dangled at the end of a string. If a bullfrog sees anything move, it assumes it is food. When I go out to feed them, they all come from all over the yard and the pond, knowing that dinner is served. The frogs are my favorite part of having a pond. While they spawn every summer, so far the mosquito fish have made sure that no tadpoles survived.

 

[j.w]

That's neat how they come for feeding time. Too bad you don't have another little pond just for them where they can raise a family w/o the skeeter fish.

 

[HSJami]

I've considered trying to get more tadpoles, since these frogs are getting old and dying off, but bullfrogs, being bullfrogs are cannibalistic and would just eat the young frogs. I've decided to just wait until the last one dies and then start over by buying more tadpoles.

 

[j.w]

Cannibals eh, well that's not good for their population statistics is it. Guess they lay so many eggs that some survive no matter how glutinous they are

 

[CountryEscape]

Toads are singing tonight. Love that sound, now that I know what it is. LOL Always thought it was crickets, never thought of toads.
My bullfrogs are hanging out in both ponds. Still have never seen any eggs or tadpoles ... not this year yet, but only a few large bullfrog tadpoles in the bog when I cleaned it out last summer. Maybe it's too early yet this year. I'm watching for them this year, though.

 

[addy1]

I think bull frogs moved into my big pond, found a 3 inch tad with legs when I was wading in the pond yesterday. About 7 frogs bail into the pond when I walk down there.

I know the green maryland frogs prefer the small fishless ponds and they also like one pond per frog. I have 9 green frogs in my nine small to large stream ponds. One per pond lol.

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, they don't like to share, sounds like, Addy.
Here's a picture I had to laugh at this morning, wasn't sure they would stay "in position" until I came back outside. When I first saw them, the female was trying to come up for air. LOL Guess I'll be having some toad tadpoles/babies .... unless they lay their eggs in the koi pond, which is where this picture was taken.

 

[koiguy1969]

GETTING FROGGY WITH IT!

 

[j.w]

Oh my CE I think that is considered pond porn,lol!