The largest (~3-4") Green Frog (note that the side ridges run all the way from head to rear legs; a bullfrog's ridges drop immediately behind the head to the front legs) I've yet found in the yard is also still here. Would be neat if Snap learned to eat the land snails (like the one in this photo) that I've seen in/around the mud puddle.
An overhead shot showing how incredibly adaptable is the local wildlife. This is far from what I would consider an ideal habitat, but if it's the only option... (We need rain. A good, steady, ground-soaking rain, and we need it badly.) On the other hand, it is probably the perfect representation of a microhabitat. Any slow draining depression in an even slightly undeveloped area can provide the necessary requirements for generalist species…
Both frog and turtle are in this picture. (Frog is pretty easy to spot; turtle is a quarter of the way in from the right on about the same horizontal line as the frog.) The songbirds need not fear for their feet for another year or so, and even the smaller frogs would be too much of a mouthful right now for Snap. But mosquito larvae, beware!!!
Duckweed has also suddenly appeared in this little bit of water. (Only a few individual plants; this photo was taken over a container of it.) So did a bird bring it in from the side yard from the "real" pond set-up, or are the frogs carrying it with them as they travel over/under/around a cinderblock wall as they move about looking for water? Also amazing stuff, is this itty bitty plant. I personally love it, but perhaps the turtle "pond" is not the best location for it. Duckweed does have a tendency to take over once it gets going, and this little mud puddle hardly has room for water as it is.
