Garden Frogs have been busy!

I wandered up the garden at teatime to check the pond in case the lovely, mild sunny weather today had woken any frogs from hibernation. There was still no sign of any frogs but they must be around somewhere because right in the middle of the pond was a small clump of frogspawn!




Poor photo I am afraid - it was getting dark! ( The frogspawn is right in the middle of the picture.)

Its unusual for spawn to be laid in the middle of our garden pond as frogs normally lay it round the edges where the water is shallower.

What is more even more unusual is the early date. I've been keeping a record of frogspawn first appearance dates ever since we put in the new pond in 1993 and, apart from 1998, the spawn has always been laid in March with an average date of 15th March. Last year the first appearance of spawn was the latest ever on 31st March.

This could even be the earliest laying date we have ever had. Unfortunately my wildlife diary is rather vague for 1998's frogspawn appearance as I wrote on the 28th February that year that "more frogspawn had been laid to add to that laid earlier that week"(i.e. 21st - 28th February.

It will be interesting to see how much more is laid this year as the amount of frogspawn in the pond has decreased greatly in the last few years.