Hello fellow frog lovers! I have a new pond in my backyard and I'm planning on making it a great home from my froggy friends. I'm hoping you folks can head me in the right directions to do it right. Since I want only native critters, I was thinking to take a walk down to the river a 1/2 mile from the house and see if there's tadpoles.

Is there a period of time that a new pond will need to get established before it will support a small frog population? It's a wild kingdom around here: The surrounding garden is pesticide-free, and provides a lot of critter-cover...there's lots of small woody debris and hidey-holes. Although we live in town, there are predators- resident skunks, barn owls, racoons, cats, a pair of nesting red-shoudered hawks, oh, and a chololate lab that wouldn't hurt a flea. I understand I will need a few fish to balance out the pond ecology, but I'm wondering how does that work if I want frogs. Will the fish eat the frog eggs? The pond will be there year-round.

I'm excited to get going as a frog co-habitant!!!!! We're in San Benito County CA. What frogs will I be finding in our local streams?
NeeNee