Blog - Page 2 of 4 - Yalobusha Farms

June 30, 2022July 26, 2022

Frog Eggs: Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

20220629 Eggs of Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) apparently lays larger clutches than I have seen in the past.

Previously, all the clutches I observed were smaller and broken up into different clumps separated by floating vegetation.

I speculated that was because the mating parents were avoiding the larger Green Frogs.

I’m not sure why the eggs in tank #4 are so numerous and all clumped in one area the same way the clutches of Green Frog eggs have been.

I certainly hope this isn’t because this is the first clutch laid where the parents weren’t pursued.

20220629 Eggs of Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) v2

Note that these eggs were laid within the past 12 hours and the yolk is still spherical. Within 24 hours the yolks will become flattened embryos.

June 30, 2022July 26, 2022

Videos of Tadpoles Swimming in Experiment Tank #6

At the bottom of this post are two videos of tadpoles of the Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) swimming in experiment tank #6. One video is from June 27, 2022, and the second is from June 30.

Juvenile Green Frogs have laid several clutches of eggs in all eight experiment tanks. Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) have also laid several clutches of eggs in every tank as far as I can tell.

June 26, 2022September 17, 2022

Biodiversity and Ecological Value

At least half of my time tending the pollinator meadow is spent removing invasive evergreen seedlings: monkey grass (liriope), Japanese privet, wintercreeper, English ivy.

These plants might not feed most insects and other animals, but birds love the seeds and poop them all over creation.

The problem is that these plants displace native species that feed a higher number of species, including caterpillars and other insect larva.

20220609-kankakee-mallow — 20220609-mallows. Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus grandiflorus) with Scarlet Rose Mallow (Hibiscus coccineus) in the lower left corner of the photo.

A plant doesn’t have to be rare or endangered to be ecologically valuable.

June 26, 2022June 26, 2022

Pollinator Meadow vs Garden

The ancestors made their gardens only in the rich damp soils of the bottom lands around rivers and creeks.

My yard is mostly clay and sand and is well up the hill from a creek.

Growing most vegetables would require unsustainable and wasteful irrigation using water from the municipal water supply which is taken from the Chattahoochie River.

It doesn’t make sense to do that if the goal is to maximize biodiversity and habitat overall.

June 25, 2022June 26, 2022

Digging the Second Pond

In 2020, I dealt with the stress of running my business during the pandemic by digging a second tadpole pond.

Why a Second Pond?

For the first ten years I owned the property, my back yard was an ordinary lawn of St. Augustine with fairly low ecological value.

The first pond was small, but it turned its corner of the back yard into a Grand Central Station of biodiversity in its first year of existence.

By the end of the summer, there were hummingbirds and blue dragonflies chasing each other overhead and everything from owls to possums coming for a drink.

20190515-frog-eggs-4. Eggs of Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans). A population of clamitans was established in the First Pond by the end of the first summer and has increased each year.

So far, the pond has remained healthy year after year, with clear water and populations of freshwater shrimp, clams, mosquitofish, water weeds, and multiple species of tadpoles.

June 25, 2022June 25, 2022

Tadpoles Swimming 2018

Here is a video of tadpoles swimming in the first pond in its third month of existence.

I incorrectly identified these as tree frog tadpoles, which I now know to be smaller.

Based on countless observations over the past four years, I am fairly certain that the tadpoles in this video are those of the common Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans), the dominate amphibian species of most freshwater biomes in the U.S. and elsewhere.

June 24, 2022June 25, 2022

Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis) mating calls June 2022

2022-06-09 Second Pond at Yalobusha Farms

Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis) mating calls June 2022 in the second pond at Yalobusha Farms.

This is the third year for the second pond, and the katniss and pennywort and pickerelweed are well established.

Last year I let the second pond be overwhelmed with water hyacinth because it allows tree frogs to enter and exit the pond safely and avoid the larger green frogs.

This year I limited the water hyacinth to the experiment tanks and let katniss and pickerelweed assume that role in the ponds.

June 24, 2022June 25, 2022

Tadpoles Swimming in Tank 6

2022-06-23 tadpoles Lithobates clamitans

The tadpoles shown here are Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans) in tank 6. As of tonight, all eight experiment tanks have many tadpoles and eggs, with the past week seeing many clutches of eggs being laid by Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis).

June 24, 2022June 25, 2022

Mosquitofish Ponds

The ponds at Yalobusha farms produce many tadpoles, especially Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans) and Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) and the Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis).

The ponds are also host to many larvae of the blue dasher dragonflies (Pachydiplax longipennis), which swarm over the katniss and chase each other around the ponds.

BUT, the creature in the ponds that seem to have the most intense ecological impact are the Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), which are voracious eaters of mosquito larvae.

In fact, there aren’t any mosquito larvae found in the ponds because Mosquitofish reproduce to fill all available space and consume the floating egg cases as soon as they are laid, often while they are being laid, along with the female mosquito.

For ten years before the ponds were dug, the back yard was plain St. Augustine grass and swarmed with Asian tiger mosquitoes no matter how dry or how rainy the year had been.

Now that the ponds are there, mosquitos are sparse.

Here is a video of fish swimming in the first pond:

May 4, 2019October 23, 2020

Tree Frogs Mating On Warm May Night 2019

Down below is some audio of tree frogs singing intensely at Yalobusha Farms in Decatur, Georgia on a warm May night in 2019.

The picture above is from the daytime a few days ago, and it shows the irises blooming at the far left and all the vegetation surging back.

The tadpole pond at is about 10 feet away from the back screen porch of my house, just down past a low retaining wall swallowed in plants.

The audio was recorded on my screen porch at night, and it is mostly the sounds of the male’s chirpy croaking, but there are a few female calls answering back. Those are the occasional yipping sounds that are higher in pitch and more urgent and shorter.