It’s a frog gone mystery to me

Where did all the frogs go?

When we moved to our little acreage a few miles outside of Bryan/College Station, we had a little pond that was teeming with hundreds of frogs. Thanks to the drought, we eventually got a look at what lurked in the water under a thick layer of duck weed and other pond scum. The pond was shallow and full of branches, leaves, and other debris. But it was also full of frogs, tadpoles, minnows, a couple water snakes, and some goldfish that I added to help control the duck weed.

A few weeks ago we had the pond dug out to be much deeper and wider. The remaining water still held an abundance of the aforementioned wildlife. The frogs were everywhere – until they weren’t. Overnight they just vanished. The snakes, too. There are still a lot of tadpoles and fish in the water, but all the frogs are gone. And I haven’t seen the snakes either, though they tend to hide a lot better than the frogs.

There hasn’t been a die-off, as there are no dead frogs around. It reminds me of the dolphins in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. Only I don’t think space aliens came and took them away. And there was no note saying, “so long and thanks for all the fish.”

Unless someone can tell me what happens to frogs when they disappear like that, it will have to remain a mystery. I asked the question on Facebook and got a lot of answers. The one I liked best was, “They croaked.”

The nice thing about having a pond is the wildlife it attracts. We frequently have white tailed deer. One morning I got a picture of six of them standing by what will someday be the shoreline. They took turns walking down the steep bank to get a drink of water. I also see a lot of animal prints in the mud, most notably raccoon.

We’ve seen an abundance of wildlife on our property, including rabbits, squirrels, turkey, and all kinds of birds, especially cardinals. I’ve seen signs of armadillos and I’m pretty sure some fox prints (it’s hard to say for sure will all of the neighborhood dogs that run through our yard). Fortunately, we have not had any wild hogs and I have yet to see any venomous snakes, although my next door neighbor said he has a problem with copperheads.

Last week we put up a hummingbird feeder and now we have about a dozen of them buzzing around our front porch. They’re amazing little critters and so much fun to watch. On Sunday we replaced the stairs to our front porch and I found myself getting distracted watching the little birds flit about. They’re like the squirrels of the bird world.

I know that once we get a garden planted and start raising rabbits, chickens, and ducks that a lot of this wildlife we are admiring will become a nuisance, but I am determined to have the best of both worlds – farming and nature. And yes, I can already hear the farmers and gardeners laughing at me.

So far we are really enjoying the rural life. It’s hard work but very rewarding. Each evening we have the good kind of tired that comes with a feeling of accomplishment. Every day we come one baby step closer to making this place what we want it to be. Frequently we’ll have some kind of setback, but that’s part of life. You take each one in stride and move forward. Every problem we solve makes everything else that much better.

Take the porch stairs for example. We knew they would eventually have to be replaced; we just didn’t think it would be this soon. Now we have new stairs and they are solid and will last a long time. We also didn’t plan on doing so much work on the pond, but it brings a lot of value to our property. We’ve been busy cutting down dead trees. Soon we will have a lot of firewood to sell.

These aren’t the kinds of things I would have imagined us doing when I was a fulltime journalist living in the city. But here we are living the dream and making things happen. I think for now I’m going to take a break and sit on the porch watching the hummingbirds and contemplating where all the frogs went.