Frogspawn- it's that time again folks!!!

[roitelet]

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee The first blob of spawn has arrived.

[Headfry]

At last......frog spawn! it's later than last year by about 2 weeks.
There are so many frogs in the pond they have turned the water muddy! it's a seething mass of legs! lovely.

[jeannine]

got home from work to find one of my pots had blown over in the wind and I have to say I didn't much fancy replanting all the seedlings at dusk in the rain, particularly as I still needed to go and buy some bits for dinner.

Paul kindly volunteered to do the shopping, and as I was gardening I started to hear a strange noise from the pond. You guessed it, male frogs calling to the females.

Dear old things, they were showing off from all four corners of the pond, and when Paul got back we had a look with a torch and then felt a bit voyeuristic as a mating pair hastily dived under water.

One of the joys of gardening is that you have so much more opportunity to enjoy wonderful things like that. if I'd got home and put the telly on I'd have been none the wiser to all the great things going on outside.

[Grandpadragon]

We now have 7 lots of spawn and all surviving despite light frosts. First lot close to 4weeks old any one know how long to hatch? Have any of you with established ponds seen any reduction in Slug population?

[Madasafish]

Snow and -4C this am. Our frogs are better than any weather forecaster. Still too cold...

[Flummery]

No spawn here yet, but we saw our first double decker on Sunday. Himself has been noting the date of first frog spawn in our ponds (2 in the back garden, one in the front) for many years. It was always within a day or two of March 19th here - but a couple of weeks earlier last year. We often get frogs clumping - several stuck together in a big pile, which has led him to the theory that frogs have about 5 sexes and you need one of each in the heap for frog spawn!

[Headfry]

had a frog trying to mate with a fish a few years back! oooh errr

[Flummery]

X rated or what Headfry!

[jeannine]

Apparently that's quite common - the frogs get so amorous they forget to be very choosy about their partners!

It doesn't usually do the fish any harm, and personally I'd much rather have frogs than fish - I think they are mush more interesting and they eat slugs!

[Grandpadragon]

We now have 7 lots of spawn and all surviving despite light frosts. First lot close to 4weeks old any one know how long to hatch?

Forget it their here

[Headfry]

Congratulations Gradpa!

[pigletwillie]

At, last, we now have loads of clumps of spawn in the pond. As our pond has fish in about half of it will go to the allotment ponds.

[jeannine]

have you got toad spawn too PW?

[pigletwillie]

To be honest Jeannine I havent really looked, I noticed the frog spawn as I walked down to my workshop.

Last year we had lots of toadspawn anchored to marginal plants and its twin strings of eggs were only really visible if we looked, the frog spawn just sits near the top like clumps of marbles so was easily seen.

[jeannine]

I've never seen a toad in the wild in this country, maybe I need to build a few more log piles!