Garden Wildlife UK

I saw a couple of frogs today. I'm expecting a no-show tomorrow.

I found a good sized blob of spawn in the pond this morning. The first of the year.

Good news, hopefully there will be a lot more.

Willpar wrote: Fri Mar 10, 2023 9:50 pm Good news, hopefully there will be a lot more.

There was a second smaller blob but something has managed to get it out of the pond and onto the slabs surrounding the pond. I'm suspecting a Blackbird as I have one that is very interested in the contents of the pond. After last night's frost it wasn't worth trying to get it back in the water.

That's a shame JS.

Milder weather has brought the frogs back to the very important job of spawning. Quite a few have paired up and more spawn has appeared.

Good news JS.

One of the frogs had a very lucky escape today. Mrs JS saw crow with something in it beak so she grabbed my binoculars to have a close look and saw it was a frog. We don't know how it caught it but after a few moments it dropped it on the pea gravel and went to the pondside and started looking as if it wanted a second frog. I went out to collect what I thought was going to be a body but found it was trying to get back to the pond so I gave it a lift and it returned to the water. We frightened the crow off but no doubt it will return.
When the frogs are in spawning mood they are very distracted and their normal caution is forgotten.

One lucky frog JS.

I have commented before that the frogs have a habit of getting out of the pond during heavy rain. It happened again today when we had a heavy shower around tea time. A couple climbed out clinched together ready for spawning. I had to pick them up and return them to the pond as one frog is not strong enough to carry a passenger.