I’ve been scooping out handfuls of leaves from Tiny Pond to make sure it is a pond instead of a bog of rotting vegetation. I felt confident that I wouldn’t disturb anything because, at it’s deepest, it is only about 40cms and I read that the pond had to be 80cms deep for safe unfrozen hibernation.
Imagine my surprise then when a large pair of legs propelled a cream- bellied frog from my damp handful. I wasn’t ready with camera but probably wouldn’t have stood a chance anyway as it buried itself quickly in the leaves on a relatively shallow ledge.
After that, I worked more carefully, but still managed to disturb a smaller frog under the box hedge, which I caught on camera for this post, and uncover a fatter resident under the Osmanthus, which I hastily covered again. The remaining leaves will just have to stay in place then.
Lion Pond is well away from the big beech so is relatively free of leaves and crystal clear, apart from a couple of clumps of pond weed. A few small plants look ready to burst into life here but no sign of amphibian life yet.
A couple of days ago John noticed some action down at Lily Pond although, when we investigated, the rippling surface had quietened down. There was nothing obvious but it seemed possible that something was awake and active. And we were right! This morning, just checking the surface before heading off to work, I spotted a first small clump of frogspawn nestled by the horizontal shoots of a Mentha aquatica (water mint) plant.
I took a photograph first and then examined it closely. Some of the blobs are white which I think means they are not viable, but most blobs have the healthy black dots that will hopefully become tadpoles in a few weeks. So, after two years of not so patient waiting, some of the tiny tadpoles I first wrote about have survived and are mature enough to start the cycle again. My fingers are crossed now for kinder weather. And of course I’ll be down at the pond every day, looking for more blobs. And night. I’ve just come back to the house having surveyed the ponds with my phone torch. There’s at least one big frog in Lily Pond tonight, but no croaking.
FROG BLOG 