Good morning, hope all are well and in good health on this too-warm November day in Florida!

[steve2470]

72 F right now where I live. About ten degrees too warm. Have a great day!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Nah, it's perfect for me. I'm loving it.

I'm still swimming in my unheated pool without a problem.

I'm dreading the inevitable cold snap.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. My frogs are loving it.

Though the woodland creatures are perplexed. I have never seen them roam at night like this. They are fat, prepared for winter weather, but in a continual state of foraging.

[csziggy]

3. The big leopard frogs in my pond are not happy - the black racer snake is still hunting

Usually by now, he'd be curled up in his den ready to sleep out most of the winter But just the other day he caught one of the larger frogs in the pond. We heard the frog screaming as the snake dragged him off the edge of the pond and started coiling around him.

Of course the lesser frogs are happy they've moved up the pecking order - but they are aware that just makes them more likely to be eaten.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I think I lost my gorgeous trio of Leopard frogs over the winter.

I caught racoons foraging in the tiny pond. No way they could have missed them if the frogs were in a state of hibernation.

Very unhappy about that. Should have left the umbrella tarp up or I should have covered the pond.

[csziggy]

5. If you're lucky they left some tadpoles to take their places

If your pond is deep enough the raccoons can't catch the pond creatures. We have raccoons here and I suspect they attempt to catch our frogs and goldfish but the pond is 30 inches deep and the fish and frogs can go to the bottom to get away from the raccoons. Even the smaller and shallow upper pond is deep enough in the middle to discourage them and we still have a healthy population of fish and amphibians in it, too.

My "ponds" are a plastic livestock water trough (800 gallons, five feet across, 30" deep) for the lower one and a fiberglass mold of a syrup vat (four feet across, 18" deep in the middle with a curved bottom) for the upper one. I bought feeder goldfish when we set them up and they breed and make more fish every year. The frogs showed up on their own. I don't feed them regularly but the fish stay healthy, probably on the mosquito larva, algae and insects that hang around.

An armadillo dug a nice hole in between the two ponds and the black racer moved into it the next year. The armadillo dug himself a new hole on the other side, so they stay neighbors.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Black racer season came and went and I only saw one the entire year.

I definitely keep guppies in the pond to reduce mosquitoes. But I bring the guppies in for the winter. Hate to say it but that's a chore. However, after several generations of random breeding I have some hardy fish.

Tub is tiny. It's more of a fountain than a pond. Not much protection for a frog or fish.

[csziggy]

9. I've only seen the racer a few times in the seven years

That's when we set up the ponds so the racer was probably living near the oaks below the house and moved to a more productive hunting grounds.

Since I thought about getting koi I wanted a larger, deeper pond and I have plenty of room for digging one but using the trough and vat I had on hand was easier. After setting the ponds up I realize how much of a PITA taking care of koi is - I'd need a filtration system and pumps to circulate the water constantly.

I'd used feeder goldfish in our horses' water troughs and they don't need any attention. Plus they are a lot cheaper so if a heron decides to fish when the water gets low, it's no big deal. All I have to do is to keep the water deep enough to discourage the herons and raccoons and the fish are safe.

[Laffy Kat]

6. Circle of life, my dear BB. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

8. I know.

But, it is especially tragic because Leopards are native and it took me years to give them an environment where they even had a showing.