The Pond Frog

My patio pond is a repurposed poly stock tank. It’s 8 foot across at the top, and tapers a bit to the bottom to about 7 foot, and it’s about 31″ deep. That’s about 725 gallons of water.

Here are the goldfish that thrive in the pond. We set this up the first summer we were at this new house – back in 2017 – when we added twelve, thumb sized goldfish from the local Walmart! We haven’t added any new fish in the years since then. They have been quite prolific.

Often, they hang out in the shadow of the marginal plants that I have in baskets along the edges of the pond – and you might not even be aware there are fish in the pond. But, in these videos the fish have come to the surface because they recognized my arrival for their morning breakfast!

The fish are not the only animals that inhabit the pond.

There is not just one, but two quite large frogs which have made this place their home.

I don’t know for certain, but I think they are Green Frogs Lithobates clamitans

Recently, one of them has become quite bold and, rather than hopping back into the water when I open the patio doors, he remains on one of the edge rocks – which is just six feet from the doors.

I snapped this photo with my cell phone camera… so you can see how close this dude allows me to get to him.

In fact, the other night, I walked out onto the patio with one of my dogs – which is not typical – and this gutsy amphibian didn’t even move!

Here are a couple other photos I took with a 50 mm camera.

Last evening, Robert and I were going to take a golf cart ride around the property. The cart is parked off the my office patio. He got there first, and was sitting on the bench when I opened the door and saw the frog on the rock.

It didn’t move. It didn’t even blink its eyes, when I stepped quite close.

Robert told me that it was a toy that he placed there to surprise me. He has done similar things now and again, and I am never surprised. Animals (even plastic rats) don’t scare me, and the plastic spiders are just – well very obviously not real. But, he keeps trying.

I looked at the frog and thought, “Wow, that’s really well painted. It looks almost exactly like the frog that I filmed, earlier that day!”

But, it wasn’t moving.

So, I got out the hose and put it on a gentle spray. Here’s what happened.

Although I know he isn’t trying to be friends, clearly this frog doesn’t mind sharing space with me. I think I need to name him. Suggestions?