Common Frogs

[IndigoSpritz]

Do you have frogs living anywhere near you ? Have they come out of hibernation yet ?

I saw a lone female in the pond at the country park the other week. Today, at the same place, I heard them before I saw them. Lots of chirping and croaking but I probably only saw about a dozen. I expect there were far more out of sight. Not spawning yet though. I think the unseasonal weather has fooled them.

I've got frog spawn in my little pond already

I rarely see the frogs though, just the spawn and then tadpoles

The males overwinter in the bottom of ponds.
The females overwinter in places like log piles.
Mine have not started spawning but they are moving around in the pond.

Lone females are rarities at this time of year, lone males are much more common.
Its been a good winter for frogs so far - the ones in my greenhouse and polytunnel are looking very healthy but they do not breed in my pond

I saw one on a quiet road in southern Cumbria on Sunday. I don't know how to tell their sex, but it was quite large and unusually yellowish.

Saw a newtbthenotherbday and a crushed toad on the road.

Errol
At this time of year, females are noticeably fat and rounded, makes are much more hollow bodied.
Colour is utterly random.

Fluff
The newts have not woken up in my pond yet ....
We do not have toads here (too urban).

I can't be sure the lone frog I saw the other week was female but it was quite long (I believe female reptiles are generally bigger than males) and had a swollen abdomen so perhaps carrying unfertilized spawn.

We had what I think is a female frog in the garden over the weekend (south Lake District), looked very worried at how excited DS was to see her/it

I have a couple who live near me. Mostly they eat tinned food, not Haute Cuisine . Sometimes they go to McDonald's.

Another couple I know are less common. They live in South Kensington. They are from a traditional line. They have a house in Brittany and know how to serve apples in 187 different ways.

Some movement in pond weekend before last. (eastern England).

203
Just threaten those frogs with some garlic butter

The frogs in this particular pond are quite fortunate. As far as I know, there are no fish to pinch the spawn and tadpoles and no herons to munch the adult frogs. The only birds I have seen there are a Mr and Mrs Mallard. All this might explain why there is so much spawn come spring-proper. I've yet to see a grass snake there as well; they LIKE amphibians.