Frog Spawn

I had another check of the pond for frog spawn today and wasn't at all surprised to see several more clumps of frog spawn. I sat quietly on a nearby bench and after a short while I noticed a few large ripples emanating from the same spot in the pond and after a short while a frog poked its head out of the water. I sat as still and as quietly as I could as we stared at each other but I eventually had to move my arm and the frog instantly disappeared beneath the surface again.

Photo: Frog spawn in our pond

Frog Spawn

On my way down our garden to the shed this morning I noticed a bit of splashing in our pond and was pleased to see frogs laying thier spawn.I had thought it was later this year, but on checking back a few years it seems marginally earlier.

Photo: Frog spawn in pond

They always lay it in the shallow end of the pond, which sometimes dries out a little. I which they would spawn in the deep end but they definately prefer the shallow end each year.

Frog Spawn

The unusually cold winter had delayed the appearance of frog spawn in our pond this year, but when I checked today there were about six or seven clumps of frog spawn in the shallow end of our pond. I'd expect more to appear as it hopefully warms up a bit more.

New life in the pond

A few weeks ago we noticed that we had lost our three fish, presumably to a predator like a heron. While I was sorry for the fish I was n't too bothered about not having any as the pond was made for wildlife and we'd never intended to have any fish. We suspected that the fish sometimes ate the tadpoles as well.

While watching the tadpoles today and noticing how some were already small frogs, some were tadpoles with legs and some still looked plain tadpoles and hadn't changed in the past few months, we noticed three baby fish, two quite light colour and one dark colour. It looks like our fish had bred before being disappearing and we had three of their offspring left.

Frog Spawn

I'd been aware that I hadn't filled up the bird feeders for a while and as we were heading into another cold snap I made the effort this morning to fill them before going to work.

As I passed out small pond I noticed a few splashes and ripples and immediately though that it was our four fish and that they had survived the winter. Then I realised that there had been about 10 or 12 almost simultaneous splashes and soon realised that it had been mating frogs and that I had disturbed them.

I had a quick look and noticed several clumps of frog spawn already in the pond.

Photo: Frog spawn in pond