How oldies entertain themselves

[zulu Delta 534]

My wife and I (both in our 70s) have spent the later part of the afternoon sitting on deck chairs with our attention glued on the bath tub that doubles as a water lily pond in our back yard.
A little while back we noted some frogs eggs on the edge of the tub so we decided to let them be and see what happened. (I remember doing the same thing when I was about 10 or so.) These eggs have duly hatched into a myriad of tadpoles and over the past few days we have been witness to the evolution of these little critters into frogs.
For those of you who have never taken the time to watch Mother Nature at work, the tadpoles who normally swim around propelled by their catfish like broad tails tend to sprout minute legs after a while but still behave like tadpoles.
Then one day Nature calls, they say to themselves "There has to be more to life than this" and they crawl out of the water and sit on a lily pad for a couple of hours while the bulk of the flesh in their "tadpole tail" is absorbed by their now "Frog" body.
These little blokes are Green frogs (someone will probably name them more precisely I am sure) and the following shots detail a little of their evolution from Tadpoles to Frog.
Once they reach full frog status, they don't hang around but depart the area to face a daunting run (hop) to a sheltered area, dodging geckos, penny lizards, birds and what ever else likes Frog Legs.
Those that survive this perilous journey hide amongst greenery and in the water pipes so that they can be the first to let us know when it rains!
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/377.jpg
Just emerged.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/378.jpg
Been out about half an hour

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/379.jpg
Been out a while now, the tail has almost completely disappeared, merely a pointy bump on the end of the body.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/380.jpg
He/she left the pond about 15 minutes after this shot by jumping on to a green pot plant about a foot away from the tub.
And that just about covers our excitement for this day. See what you youngsters have to look forward to!
Regards
Glen

[d2dave]

We have a dam that is only about 5 metres from our house. We have three species of frogs, Banjo, Peron Tree frog and a species that I have yet to identify.

During spring the frog calls are very loud and on a nice night we have a door from our bedroom near the dam open. We go to sleep with the frog calls.

SWBBO and myself love our frogs.

We have a friend who visits from the big smoke and he complains about their(to him noise)calls.

[bob10]

Glen, thanks for that. here at the moment we have a family of butcher birds, mum , dad, 2 kids. They are almost like pets to our neighbourhood, when we dig our gardens, they hop [ unlike magpies, they don't walk] & dart between our legs to get at the worms & bugs. They sit on our particular balcony rail, & sing their heart out. It's a tossup between the magpie song, & the butcher bird song. Love it, Bob

[zulu Delta 534]

Why do we have to get this old to start appreciating these things Bob?
Regards
Glen

[bob10]

Why do we have to get this old to start appreciating these things Bob?
Regards
Glen


Too busy, raising children, working, perhaps. Let's rejoice in the fact, we are here enjoying , works for me, Bob

[richard4u2]

Why do we have to get this old to start appreciating these things Bob?
Regards
Glen
because you are now on a pension and cant afford to go to a motel and rent a movie on the companys credit card :)

[BBC]

Zulu Delta 534,

Maaaate!!! Stop it...you are not yet old!!!

You and your Love&Kisses are still 18!!....and stupid.

With at least 52 (+) yrs of experience....

[Mudnut]

I have recently set up our inflatable edge wading pool next to our car port. It already has tadpoles in it. Green tree frogs are what laid eggs that eventually turned into little hoppers about the size of my thumb nail. We love the calls of the frogs. I have set up the pool for the last two years. Unfortunately I think the biggest risk for the little frogs are Cane Toads, they will eat anything that moves. Last year we counted hundreds of little frogs, so trying to help the population.

Cheers for posting

Ken

[Fifth Columnist]

Our kitchen is single storey so it's easy to hang stuff from the gutter and watch through the window.
Our garden birds get through over 50 kilos of peanuts and 30 kilos of sunflower seeds in a year, not to mention several large tubs of fat balls and a variety of household scraps. We have jumbo feeders for when we're on holiday.
Loads of entertainment without having to find pet sitters. :D

PS I'm 71

[bob10]

I have recently set up our inflatable edge wading pool next to our car port. It already has tadpoles in it. Green tree frogs are what laid eggs that eventually turned into little hoppers about the size of my thumb nail. We love the calls of the frogs. I have set up the pool for the last two years. Unfortunately I think the biggest risk for the little frogs are Cane Toads, they will eat anything that moves. Last year we counted hundreds of little frogs, so trying to help the population.

Cheers for posting

Ken


I haven't seen green frogs around here for ages. We have cane toads, so you could be right. When we shifted the daughter into her new rental home at Gayndah, there in the bathroom, on the window sill were two large green tree frogs. A welcome sight. Bob

[newhue]

Good work Glen,
It is a shame most of us don't take, or have the time to notice the world that supports our existence. Without it the human race is all but gone.
Great to see you have a little frog farm helping out, Nature is so amazing.

[ramblingboy42]

there is an organisation here in Qld who will give you tadpoles ....and the advice to go with them.....to grow.

they will give you the correct species for your area.

they will also advise you how to make your "pond" canetoad resistant.

some of your "breed" will come back to you to breed and you can perpetuate the cycle.

declare war on any cane toad though.

[ramblingboy42]

can't find that site but for those interested this may help....
Frog Safe, Inc. (http://www.frogsafe.org.au/home/)

[Hall]

Neighbours have pond with frogs and we have for most of the year swampy ground down the back of our block. So at night you get the frogs in the pond doing some long distance chat with the frogs down the back of our place. Usually one will start then there is a reply and of they go.
Cheers Hall

[newhue]

there is an organisation here in Qld who will give you tadpoles ....and the advice to go with them.....to grow.

they will give you the correct species for your area.

they will also advise you how to make your "pond" canetoad resistant.

some of your "breed" will come back to you to breed and you can perpetuate the cycle.

declare war on any cane toad though.

Frog Society I believe.
No good if the dam cane toads can access the same water as the frogs.

[zulu Delta 534]

For those of you who may be at all interested in growing frogs, below is my water lily tub (alias old bath tub) where our accidental myriad of tadpoles are living at the moment. Don't panic about the way the bricks are stacked, they merely fill up the hole and are not supportive.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/316.jpg

I have a thing about recycling junk to a certain extent, not fanatical by a long shot, nor a real hoarder, but a couple of years ago when Brisbane was desperately short of water I took it into my head to grow our meagre vege garden in a manner where we could recycle the scarcest ingredient in gardening at the time, water.
What better than a bathtub.
Most people who buy an older house tend to modernise and do up the bathroom at some time in the project, and as a result there is always a reasonable supply of bath tubs to be had.
School desks are a spasmodically changed item and a bathtub fits nicely on top of a recycled set of old school desk legs, so when the chance came up to grab a dozen or so old desks the project sprang into being.
By taking the top off the desks, then simply placing the bath tubs on or in the leg frame assembly, we suddenly have a garden that is workable at waist height (got to look after the Boss's back), ground pest free and allows the water used to be recycled, simply by placing a bucket under the plug hole to catch the used water.
So far it has been reasonably successful and fruitful, but mainly as the title of this thread suggests, it entertains us oldies without putting too much strain on us physically.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/317.jpg
The Gunbuggy in the background is to satisfy the Land Rover content critics!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/318.jpg
The vine in the back is a white passionfruit and this year the fruit is like footballs, The bush at the rear of the tub is a white capsicum, then working forward, Basil and a rhubarb plant.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/319.jpg
Capsicum white and green and a passionfruit.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/320.jpg
Remains of the corn crop.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/321.jpg
The Boss harvesting spinach

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/02/322.jpg
Home made worm farm where all the vege scraps end up.

That, fiddling with old Land Rovers, attending what seems like an endless cycle of various association and club meetings of all types and watching the seemingly endless stream of birdlife that passes through our backyard (despite the fact that we have a cat), grown up kids and grand kids, seem to keep us oldies reasonably entertained all year round.
Wouldn't swap it for quids.
Regards
Glen

[The ho har's]

We agree :D

[olbod]

Well done Glen, very interesting.
Up here we could never set up those sorts of tubs like that.
Every year on tv we are advised to empty and dispose of anything that holds water in the back yard because of the risk of Ross River and Dengue Fever. Both of them nasty.

We still have a few green frogs around but mainly toads.

I like frogs and snails.
Some of my favorite tucker when in Noumea.
Betty would not partake tho.