Dams, daffodils and frogs

 When you drive into our place, one of the first things you will see is the dam, also known as the frog pond. 

It was originally a dam..... hand dug ( or so the story goes ) for supplying water to the deer that lived on the property inside a  high fenced deer enclosure. 

The deer had been removed when we bought the property 20 years ago, but the structure remained.

At some stage, we (probably me ) decided to make the dam a part of our garden and encourage water birds to visit..... so the fence was removed.

This was in 1998....the middle of winter by the look of it!!!

We even bought some ducklings at the market ( Amy's idea) and Bill constructed an enclosure for them to be safe at night. They were gorgeous and would happily wander around the garden.

And of course there were all the other little creatures that love to inhabitat such places too.

This little wildlife warrior loves to spend time around the dam looking for frogs and yabbies and tadpoles and lizards. 

Two nights ago Bill spotted this little froglet just outside the window where I  have a collection of roses and plants in pots that people have given us. 

And then much to our delight he appeared again last night.
.....our little frog population has returned. 
These are some  photos that Bill has taken in previous years.This is an eastern common froglet...

And this is a spotted marsh frog .....

We are so lucky that this is a healthy habitat for them and we will try to keep it that way.

This grim photo is how we found the frog pond after the fire on February 9 later in the evening....

 And this is how it looks today.... the blackness has gone but it remains dry.

We hope that one day it might once again look like this.....