I only wish I could be smarter than the squirrels. My first attempt to outsmart them came with the purchase of tube feeders. Then I moved the tube feeders to metal posts. Then I moved the tubes & posts far away from anything so they couldn't jump up. Next I tried giving them their own corn (attracted deer). Now I have collars on the posts with the tubes, placed out away from any trees, bushes, or other physical structures. That worked for a year or so, but now they figured out how to undo the collars. At least the tube feeders have metal around the openings so they aren't eating holes in the plastic. Jed & Jethro (aka Ellie May) now sound like a perfect solution--I'm sure there's some way to keep them moving enough to be interesting.

If I weren't so frustrated, I would find it very amusing to see them wrapped around the tube, swinging in the air.

Thanks for the Carolina Biological link. That is SOOO cool. :) I grew up about 20 minutes from the American Science & Surplus Store & the Carolina Bio pages is giving me happy flashbacks.

Hey gang, I think I found "Granny!" :)

An older lady was somewhat lonely and decided she needed a pet to keep her company. So off to the pet shop she went. She searched and searched. Nothing seemed to catch her interest, except this ugly frog. As she walked by the jar he was in, she looked and he winked at her.

He whispered , "IM LONELY TOO, BUY ME AND YOU WONT BE SORRY."

The old lady figured--WHAT THE HECK, she hadn't found anything else.

She bought the frog and put him in the car.

Driving down the road the frog whispered to her "KISS ME AND YOU WONT BE SORRY."

So the old lady figured WHAT THE HECK, and kissed the frog.

IMMEDIATELY the frog turned into an absolutely gorgeous sexy young handsome prince.

THE PRINCE THEN KISSED THE OLD LADY BACK..........AND GUESS WHAT THE OLD LADY TURNED INTO?

COME ON GUESS?

OOOOOOOHHHHHHH COME ON
SHE TURNED INTO THE FIRST MOTEL SHE COULD FIND.

She's old.......NOT DEAD!!!!!

Dang, it's a shame the graphics wouldn't cut and paste from the email, too... still cute, though, huh?

Little fountain froggy is back!!!

I was outside watering the potted plants yesterday afternoon when my hose inadvertantly knocked over the bamboo fountain going into my whiskey barrel. When I went to put it back in place, there was little froggy clinging to the house behind it with a scared look on his face. He also looks like he's grown since last we met.

This morning, I saw a nice little 14" garter snake, "in the grass" even.

Wildlife at Casa Del Sig! :D

I have pictures, but I'll have to remember to bring them to post on this creature-feature thread. :-)

Well there's a good chance little garter snake will EAT little fountain froggy, MrSig, so you may have to make CHOICES, soon.

Happy Choosing!
Jeff

Ah, but that will be an easy choice to make. Little Garden Hoe will turn Little Garter Snake into Little Tiny Pieces. :-)

But, since I saw little foutain froggy (LFF) last night and little garter snake (LGS) this morning (without a little lump in his little stomach), I think LFF is safe at the moment.

Besides, in my zeal to get a little digital pic of LGS, I think I ran him off for a little while anyway. :D

Ok kids, its time for another TriangleJohn story.

Not sure if many of you have ever had the chance to enjoy the company of master birders - which is the official classification for mentally ill people who fixate on watching rare birds. People who will spend HUGE amounts of money and travel to remote areas to see and/or photograph an icredibly shy and reclusive tweeter. Well this is my social group, though I myself have been cured by a wonderful twelve step program.

One fine spring day the hotline was humming with news that some super duper rarity from across the Mexican border had ended up in eastern Oklahoma by mistake (see, tornados are good for something!). So folks from far and wide had driven all night and walked through tick infested weeds to arrive at a small pond to scan the far bank for said songbird. Eventually he was spotted, a gorgeous sight, in full breeding color.

When I finally arrived there were close to 100 birders lined up on the bank all with spotting scopes and binoculars that cost more than I make in one year. All trained on the tiny red speck flitting about the far bank.

Suddenly news broke out that some celebrity birding scientist (I don't remember who) had arrived with a fancy schmansy film crew in tow to photo document this amazing creature from distant lands.

Just as the cameras were being focused the little bird twittered down to the pond's edge for a nice long drink... and there he was promptly gobbled up by a waiting bull frog! All of caught on tape.

It is times like this when I have to laugh even while swatting West Nile Virus infected mosquitos out of the air and picking Lyme's Disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever carrying dog ticks off my legs - rolling in the grass, clutching my sides, doubled over in a painful laughing fit.

Well, what kind of bird WAS it?

That story has me rolling! My FIL is one of those crazy birders. He would probably start a campaign against to eradicate bullfrogs! He already eyes my cats evily every time he stops by. Until these posts I never would have believed a frog of any kind could eat a bird! -Ais.

I think it was some sort of Tanager from the mountains of Southern Mexico. I don't remember it being any prettier than the Western or Scarlet Tanagers we would occasionally see. What a lot of people don't know is that wildlife (birds in particular) do not read very well. So when the field guide states that such-n-such bird ONLY lives in such-n-such place the birds don't understand that flying off to distant places is forbidden. Once again I campaigne for a literacy program for ALL LIVING THINGS, including flowers. If everyone would just behave the way they are supposed to things would flow a lot smoother!

My cousin used to live near the King Ranch in Texas. I have read that a lot of bird nuts go there to see all kinds of rareties from Mexico. I believe Big Bend is a really good birding spot too. I'm not a bird watcher of the nutty variety, but I would like to visit those places one day.

It occurred to me a little while ago -- that must have been one heck of a bullfrog to take out a tanager! They're like toothless aligators.

Bullfrogs can get BIG!

And they'll grab anything they can, even if it's too big to swallow (or so I've read), and take it down slowly, sometimes over many hours.

I'm going by the COUNTLESS posts on this topic on the Ponds & Aquatic Plants forum (and I mean literally probably into the THOUSANDS in the four years I've been reading and posting there).

Recently, someone posted they saw a bullfrog in their pond catch a GRACKLE (now that's a BIG bird) by the head, and then another came over, and the two of them were both tugging on it, fighting over it until it was long dead (suffocated in the first frog's mouth, I think), and then they both finally realized it was too big to swallow and left it sitting there. Another said they saw a bullfrog try to catch a SQUIRREL by the NOSE, and that although the squirrel got away, the bullfrog had "a piece of him" for a few seconds there.

These are very aggressive, fearless predators that will eat essentially anything they even THINK they can... Folks on the Ponds Forum are CONSTANTLY arguing about them... some want to kill them or run them off; others, like me, like them (so far, lol... mine haven't tried to eat Tater Tot yet :) I think they'd find him WAY more than a challenge! He'd come in the house with a frog hanging out of his mouth, head held high! (10 pounds of TERROR he is!)

Lots of folks who want to have OTHER kinds of frogs in their ponds have gotten rid of their bullfrogs because the bullfrogs ATE all the other frogs... even mature green frogs, which look a lot like bullfrogs, but don't get quite as big. If I were to put my largest one in the palm of my hand now, he'd hang out all over, and I THINK he's from one of LAST YEAR'S tadpoles! And I FEED HIM (to try to get him tame), in addition to whatever he catches on his own!

Heck, now I'm all worked up, and it's late... I gotta get off of here, get out my spotlight and go see if my frogs are hungry, lol.

Happy Froglovin' :)
Jeff

How big can bullfrogs get? How big approximately are Jed & Jethro (or Ellie Mae)? I am curious about this because I didn't know frogs could get so big as to try to take grackles and prey like that. (In most natural environments something else eats them before they get that big!)

Jed (or Pearl, whatever the case may be) and Jethro are each about the size of my two fists put together - maybe a little bigger. Not big enough to actually eat the grackle or squirrel, but a big enough ego to try! ;-) I personally witnessed both those attempts. It changed the way I look at my frogs....

I've seen them try for the fish several times as well (at the risk of starting THAT whole thing again), but never with any success.

Because I live in town with an eight foot fence around my yard, they need not worry about predators - there aren't any. The cats just ignore them - it's beneath their dignity to catch frogs! As for how big frogs get; I've seen frogs in the local swamps way bigger than my guys.

OK, I just looked it up and adult bullfrogs are usually 3.5 to 6" in length. The record according to the Peterson Field Guide of Reptiles and Amphibians is 8". That's a heck of a big frog. The guide says they will eat anything that moves and is small enough to swallow, such as other frogs, young snakes and small turtles. No mention however of fish. ;)

Love the first pics of Jed & Jethro sitting on the waterpond. They are large & by the "expressions" on their faces they look like they have an attitude of "yeah, we're bad!" Great pics & postings. This is my first time here & I've been laughing like crazy - thanks.

The little fountain froggie I mentioned earlier in this thread is now a father, er I mean mother, or both?

Anyway, my fountain is now home to what looks like a million little tadpoles.

Kinda glad this thread came back around. Gives me the opportunity to post a couple pictures of Pearl (formerly known as Jed) and Jethro's children (which we just discovered). Lily the smallest, in the first picture and Earl in the second photo. Earl likes to sit up on the brick like the big guys. They're both only about an inch long.

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They're very cute!

How precious!! Especially the one of Earl sitting on the brick - he's so tiny. Lily looks as if she likes the nice cool shade (either that, or she's scared). They are darling! Take good care of them.

This is great! ....and I thought hummingbirds were crazy!

Kinda makes me feel a little uneasy about going barefoot after dark.

Rip

Here's the most "precious" part of it all, desertprincess... as those little froggies get bigger, and competition for territory and food increases in that little pond, said parents "Jed/Pearl, Jethro," or whoever, may very well EAT little "Earl & Lily," offspring, or not.

To a frog, a meal is a meal is a meal... and if it happens to be another of their same species, even their own offspring, that may not make one bit of difference.

Enjoy the little ones while you can, Gibcats :)
Jeff

Gee, thanks for the encouragement, Jeff!! ;-)
We keep a close eye on them. When we don't see them for a full day, we always think they've been eaten. But so far, so good...

Maybe Jeff could adopt Earl and Lily (you know he wants them).-Ais.

I'd consider adopting them out if it would increase their chances of survival. But he'd have to come catch them. ;-)

I had that thought, too, about Earl and Lily becoming a meal, but I didn't want to say "They're so cute!", followed by "I hope their parents don't eat them!". ;)

I didn't want to say "They're so cute!", followed by "I hope their parents don't eat them!". ;)

Having a rather dark, morbid sense of humor, I, on the other hand, have NO such compunctions :-P

But I DO still hope they don't become "frog fodder."

By the way, I hadn't seen any of my froggies in a while, but something told me to take the spotlight and camera out last night before bed, and I caught one that was a little bullfrog maybe 4" long and living in my header pond earlier this season now a full-grown BIG bullfrog at least twice that size and sitting on the slate beside my bigger lower pond. And he sat there and posed for me for a while... I got some of my best frog pictures to date... I think he remembered me feeding him and was waiting for something, but I didn't have anything, since they've been so scarce... but now that I saw him again, I'll have to get some more frog goodies at the ready :)

Happy Froglovin'!
Jeff

Well, my FIRST thought when I first saw them was that they would eventually be eaten. I'm learning not to become too attached to any of the pond life. I have noticed that I never see the little ones out and about at the same time the big ones are. Smart kids, I guess. Maybe they have a chance...

fascinating and hilarious thread, to say the least!!

we move any bulls we find back to the swamp in the easement precisely because they will eat any & everything. we play with them some before we trot them back there, though. we probably move 10 in any given yr- though it could be the same stubbor frogs finding their way back up. we have about 10 large green frogs & some little ones around- and they, unlike the bulls, get very tame, very easily. i've never tried to feed them, but you have to touch them to make them move. one, 'cripple frog' because his knees are messed up, has been around for 3+ yrs. he/she's the queen bee and almost as big as a bull. gets around just fine, depite the funky knees. my kids love it. i don't believe the greens are as prone to eating everything under the sun as the bulls, but they sure are FAT! i have a funny pic i took this spring of three of them sitting together- i'll see if i can dig it up & post later. tam

This is the funniest thread I've read in quite awhile. Started reading earlier and have been walking around humming "Froggy went-a-courtin' and he did ride..." all afternoon. Thanks for the giggles!

forgot to say before that arwen, you can come & get as many toads as you like! we love them, but have ore than enough to share. our prop backs up to lake easement(read swamp), and we have more toads than we know what to do with. if you haven't gotten your toads yet, your are more than welcome to come by sometime & get some. seriously. i believe you were at my house before, right after the spring swap. maybe not- there was a big group who was, though. anyhow, just let me know! tammy

You all are cracking me up! Jeff, you are so optimistic, dear. It brightens my day...

I have a little froggie that has taken up residence in my basement. One day I watched him for a while as he hopped into the rubber seal at the bottom of the garage door that opens into the basement from one end to the other until he found the little bit that was missing. He's obviously not too bright if it took so much effort. I've put him outside over and over again, and every time I open that door he hops from some new location and scares the crap out of me! I think he's the reason we haven't had a basement full of dead millipedes this year. By the end of the summer he ought to have fattened up enough to where he can't get back out that little hole!

~Angie

I was thinking "what happened to Err"? You've got Bud and Wise, where is Err?

Just a different take.

I can't get "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog" out of my head.

ColumbiaSC,
Take another look at the original picture at the start of this thread. There's a third smaller frog in the clay saucer to the left of the fountain. Must be Err....

It's the tadpoles that don't taste good. Bullfrog legs are considered a delicacy by some creatures, human and nonhuman.

Just an update - I haven't seen the babies in three days now. I hope they're just hiding out....

Just had to read this whole thing!! I can relate to this. We had a small pond back home . We were buying tadpoles every year and couldn't figure out why we never had any frogs. We finally figured out that we DID have frogs, a very large one like Jed and a smaller one. The big one, Bubba, used to sit in the waterfall and let the water run over his back. He looked so happy and fat.Then we started seeing feathers and were blaming the neighbors cats,thinking they were catching the poor defenseless birds as they got drinks out of the waterfall. We never would have beleived it if you didn't see it, Bubba just sat real quiet there in the waterfall and whena sparrow would come he would just open his mouth and inhale the poor thing,then he would jump into the pond and later you would see feathers floating on the surface of the pond...ewwww. A friend of ours was having a problem with overpopulation of his goldfish. We decided it was time to move Bubba. Took us two weeks to catch that bugger. Now we tell friends that we put him in the relocation program for problem frogs ! Needless to say, our friend no longer has a problem with overpopulation.

When we moved we brought the pump and filter and all the stuff.... so it's not too hot for a pond here huh?
But how on earth do you dig in this soil to get a nice deep pond? I'd really like to have a natural looking one not one of the above ground ones.

New2nocarolina, where in NC are you?It's not too hot for a pond as long as you take some precautions. I have lost a few fish due to heat over the years, but I'm learning. Didn't lose any during this last wicked heat spell, so I'm doing okay.
My pond is only two feet deep. I didn't hit clay until I was about a foot down. That last foot was really hard work!! But worth it!
Rose in Elizabeth City

I "dug" mine with a Mantis tiller, then just shoveled out the loosened clay.
Where there's a will, there's always a way.

:)
Jeff

Good thinking, Jeff. As my pond is small, it was just me and my shovel.... Whew!

I am on the border(?) of Wendell and Clayton. It seems like our ground is just plain hard . But then again I am used to dark rich 'real' dirt, that you don't struggle to dig in ! This is really taking getting used to!

After a good rain the ground will be softer and easier to dig into. The downside is that the wet soil (clay) is very heavy!

Wish I could have seen the looks of the birders faces when the frog ate the Tanger. The hot shot birder would have won the $100,000 on America's Funniest Videos if the cameras were trained on him instead of the bird.

These stories have been great, thanks for the laughes!

Frogless in Garner,
Jeanne

Hello Everyone,

I have spent my entire day reading on the bullfrogs. I started out with searching for ideas on how to turn a inground swimming pool into a pond and I got sidetracked.

We have a pool we haven't used for years and it always has water in it. We have always had a frog in there from time to time, but this year we have seven bullfrogs. And, I think tey've moved in for good. Well, maybe we only have six now, I forgot about the poor soul that my cat and dog teamed up on last weekend. That created a project for my husband and I to make a surface to go inside of the pool with tiles for the frogs to bask in the sun on, instead of get out of the pool (which they still do).

Up, until reading all the info on these forums about the bullfrogs, I loved them. Now I'm just not sure. My friends and family think I'm crazy.

I haven't seen them eat any birds or other frogs, I do know that I'm always dishing out toads that fall in at night. I did at one time have thousands of tadpoles and then one day they were all gone. I guess the bullfrogs ate them. :(

Anyway, reading this has been a hoot. I would attach a picture of two of them, but now sure how to di it!

This thread was VERY entertaining! I've been following it all the way down for the last hour, chuckling, in between phone calls at work. :)
There is a creek that borders my garden plot and I have seen frogs there on occasion. I catch any little toads I find while weeding/clearing and put them in the veggie garden to naturally decrease the bug population. Great little garden goblins!
Thanks to all of you for the laughs and the info.

Love this thread. I'm honestly happier to have my rat snake living under my sidewalk & house than I'd be to have such big bullfrogs living in my back yard! Scary!

We have all sorts of lizards, toads and tree frogs. At night, what a racket from all the frogs singing at the neighbor's house. They have a pool over there, and they are so considerate to the frogs that they use some special system so that they don't have to use much chlorine. When we first moved in we couldn't believe the noise at night. Seemed like 90 decibels from inside the house.

We haven't seen any deer in our yard, but we have red tailed hawks, song birds, snakes, lizards and and rabbits. Oh and up to 20 squirrels when I put out food for them. I was very interested to see which bird feeder held off the squirrels the best. Thanks for that.

Here is my favorite NC reptile and amphibian site:

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/herpcons/herpcons.html

We enjoy figuring out what kind of snakes and lizards we have.

Here is a link that might be useful: NC reptiles and amphibians

Boy I love a good reptile thread. We recently found that we have a toad that lives in our garden in a bunch of blackberry canes. It didn't always live there. It used to live in the actual garden amongst the plants but he moved after the dog found him and has had to keep moving. We have nick named him Sir hopsalot. The dog doesn't understand she is too big to play with the toad. He has been doing a stellar job of keeping the nasties away from the plants so far. Every night we take the dogs for a walk and have been trying to find him a friend. No luck yet. I will have to get a picture of him for all of the other frog/toad lovers. I have had more luck with turtles this year. I have rescued several that were hit by cars. They have bee recovering in the garden as well. Since we have raised beds, we feel the the garden is safe from the turtles.

I'm no reptile expert, but have enjoyed this thread from its' beginning. Jed & Jethro rule!

Over my few years of gardening, I have noticed a rapid decline in amphibianans/reptiles (don't know what's what or how to spell it either) activity.

First two years w/my yard there were lots and lots of little (thumbnail size) green 'frogs', especially right after a rain. And many walnut size 'toads' (bigger and browner than the frogs), but they seem to have all disappeared. Am noticing a few more baby snakes and lizards lately, but no froggies.

I don't use any herbicides or pesticides - can't figure out why they've disappeared.