Build it and they will come
And they did come.. a whole plethora of frogs.
We signed up with Ducks Unlimited in the hopes of having a wildlife pond built. Our site was assessed and selected. How fortuitous!
The digger came and rolled through the property to where the pond would be dug. The earth it rolled over is still hard as a rock to this day. Don't mess with soil compaction, kids. For a whole week the digger dug, a great hole with varying depths and shore slopes. So the frogs can climb out, you see.
And then it was done. We were in shock.
"Doesn't it need a pond liner, or clay to keep the water from seeping out?"
Nope. The rain water will simply fill it up, like a giant puddle.
"Don't we need to stock it with plants and wildlife?"
Nope. They will come.
So we did nothing, but wait.
The rains rained, the pond filled. Cattails grew. Cranes visited, gliding across the sky, surveying the site, swooping down for a rest only if we were far away. We began to see dragon flies catching mosquitoes in the summer heat. We waited with bated breath for our first sign of amphibian life.
And in the spring, it came. So many frogs. They burst forth from the pond and hopped into our lives. They greet us at the front door, hop down the driveway, surprise us as we work in the garden. They sit still at the edge of the pond, head just above the water line, meditating on a passing insect, or watching us as we work nearby. The little frogs sing a symphony in the night. Croaks and trills, grunts and whistles. It is the soundtrack of a late spring evening spent gazing at the Milky Way galaxy rising in the southeast, of days getting longer and temperatures rising.
We built the pond, and the little frogs came.