It’s Friday 13th March and, luckily, I’m in the garden with camera to record the first wrigglings of the tadpoles. Then, on Tuesday of this week, I leaned in a little closer to see the tadpole bodies taking shape.
By Thursday, the weather had turned sunny and warm at last, so I took a break from meetings to capture some signs of spring.
And, in the ponds, I saw that the tadpoles had escaped their spawn blobs and were huddled together feasting. Most were still wriggling but some had escaped fully and were swimming free of the spawn clump. If you look closely you will also see mating pond snails in one of the clips.
Captured! …or not.
I’ve seen a newt a few times recently but I’ve not been quick enough with the camera. But today I went out to survey the scene and spotted a newt deep in Lily pond, attacking a worm. Because it was busy it stayed put for a while, tugging at the worm which seemed to be putting up a fight. As soon as the newt spotted me hovering over the surface though, it let go of its prey and shot away into the pond sludge. The worm wriggled off in the other direction, back into the murk.
FROG BLOG 