Go to latest entry.....................................Go to previous entry16 March - As I write this at 11.15am it is 14C outside, on a bright and breezy Spring morning.
There are two new clumps of spawn this morning, but the frogs are very quiet, just the odd croak and the urge to dash about seems to be missing. It really does look as though spawning is over.
17 March - Confirmation today that spawning is over. During the day I saw only two frogs out in the open, although more could be seen hiding amongst the vegetation. There are more out and about in the pond this evening but there is none of the dashing around that has been a feature over the last week, at least not by the frogs - and they are silent.
Here I pressed the shutter a moment too soon as one came to the surface to breathe.
I did not see any in the process of egg-laying so far today, but I will be going out to take another look later. In the meantime, this picture shows an encounter between two males. The newt on the right was the most animated, bending his tail as you can see, and vibrating it furiously before moving on.
And a closer shot before it moved behind the cover of the pond plants to continue eating its meal.
Another clump of frogspawn appeared this morning, so the mating isn't all over, although today there was no more frog activity than I saw yesterday.
19 March - A wet and windy morning ensured that the pond was topped up today. Daytime temperature was a degree cooler than yesterday, at 11C briefly when the sun came out this afternoon. The water temperature is around 8C.
I couldn't resist a photograph of this one, looking up from a couple of inches under water. The effect of water pressure helps to give it a rather monstrous appearance (I think). Even the newts seem to be less active tonight and I could only see a few of them.
I had spent a bit of time skimming Duckweed of the water surface earlier in the day, but needless to say, there are still enough plants drifting about to guarantee their appearance in nearly every pond picture I take!
20 March - The Spring Equinox, and the new season has started very squally, with more high winds than there were yesterday, but less rain.
The picture shows the state of development of one of the early clumps of spawn. The first fertilised spawn was produced on 5 March so I would expect to see the first signs of tadpoles emerging now. I shall take another look tomorrow.
Measuring about 7mm in length, I think it may be Helophorus aquaticus, which often lives amongst debris at the edge of still water. Unlike the other beetle, this one does not have swimming legs. The right hand picture shows it 'walking' upside-down under the surface film. The image shows the silvery look that results from a reservoir of air that it carries, trapped amongst the many hairs that coat the insect's underside.
25 March - No entries for the last few days because the pond has become very quiet - the water temperature is around 6.5C and there is hardly a frog to be seen.
The frogspawn has started giving up its tadpoles, although I haven't yet seen any swimming. This picture shows some on the bottom of the shallow end of the pond.
This image shows one emerging from an algae covered frogspawn mass. You can see the recently emerged tadpoles clinging to the mass.
This image shows a moment when newts were gathered together in the open. A close look will reveal that there are not just five adult newts, but also a newtlet (rather orange in colour, centre-left), one of last year's brood, that seems to have joined the feeding party.
This is another one, photographed just after. I have seen newtlets in the pond during the winter in the past but this is the first time I have seen them apparently hunting with the adults.
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