Topics

1

Pond Chat / Pacific Treefrog

« on: April 02, 2008, 09:11:37 PM »

A couple of years ago we were very happy to hear that a frog took residence in our pond. We never saw it, but heard its calls. Sometimes we'd hear it by the backyard pond and other times we'd hear it by the frontyard pond. Never did see the frog though. Then we didn't hear from it for a long time. It wasn't winter, so we figured it died or went somewhere else.

The the frog came back this year. Only it was clear that there was more than one. And they were in both the front and back yards. Finally, my son spotted one of the frogs a couple of weeks ago. A little guy, not more than 1 inch.

I was doing some cleanup in the pond this past weekend, and as I was moving some of the rocks around the edge of the pond, I guess I surprised several of them and they jumped in the pond. I caught one of them to take photos of it. Here is one of the photos. I did a search and it looks like it's a Pacific Treefrog, sometimes also called a Pacific Chorus Frog.

Never did figure out how these frogs came to be in our pond. We live in the middle of San Jose. It may be that some eggs came together with some plants. I guess that's most likely. For awhile, I thought a maybe a bird dropped him off!

2

Pond Chat / more lotus photos

« on: August 10, 2006, 10:46:28 PM »

I have posted nothing but lotus photos this year. You are probably getting tired of them. I wish I could post some nice lily photos, but my lilies have not been doing so hot this year - maybe partly because this Chawanbasu lotus has taken over part of the pond where I have most of my lilies. They are in separate pots, but the lotus leaves do cover up a lot of the lily pads.
 
By the way, the literal translation of 'Chawanbasu' from Japanese is 'bowl lotus.' I always thought it was because it was a small lotus that could be grown in a "bowl," but looking at these photos, now I think the cupped blossoms are sort of bowl-shaped, and that's how it got its name. Also, ever since this lotus jumped the small container I had it in and started growing at the bottom of my pond, I've realized that this is not a small lotus!