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Spawning frogs (to be added to as the season progresses)
Spawning frogs
6/01/09 Spawning started later this year, with the first frogs arriving a few days before Christmas. The cold spell in December obviously delayed them. Since then of course it has become even colder with ice on the pond. There is quite a bit of spawn under the ice, will have to wait and see if it survives by going into suspended animation, or if the cold is too much.
Comments
I had decided over the winter season, to have my old pond re-vamped and have a true wildlife pond. The frogs and newts and various other creatures, had always bred in my pond and I was worrying as to the best time to do these alterations as, much to my dismay, the goldfish had been devoured by a passing heron. Of course, we got held up by the cold winter, and when my gardeners finally appeared, the frogs had spawned, this was in the last week of February. Anyway, there were nine masses of spawn and we put them carefully into a container and then transferred them to the new pond, when complete. I am pleased to say I have lots of very happy tadpoles in the pond now, and they have plenty of hidey holes and pond plants etc. The newts have also returned, and I have seen two water spiders. I am amazed to see how quickly the wildlife is returning to this new pond.
Hi Carol, and congrats on the birth of your tadpoles!! Could these be the first in the country? Our resident frogs have only just made themselves visible after the harsh winter weather, but now we have had some warmer days, who knows?......perhaps the visiting frogs are en route, and then the fun will begin!!
Hi Carol. Seems like frogs & their spawn have anti-freeze flowing through them!
Wow! Your frog mating season does start early! Up here in East Yorkshire we don't usually see any frog activity in our garden pond until March and, very often, once they have spawned, along comes a cold spell that kills off all the spawn! Last year, however, we were fortunate that all the frogspawn seemed to survive and the pond was seething with tadpoles! Our pond has now been frozen over for the past couple of weeks, but the forecast is for slightly milder weather - let's hope so!
Hi Mudwoman. Since you posted your article we have had a number of sub-zero days, here in Suffolk at least. It will be interesting to see if the frog spawn remains viable. Will you let us know?
