Walsall Wood Snow

Probably not worth (and I'm trying to tell myself this as much as anyone else) getting too hung up about what Winter may turn out like just yet, as it's probably still too far away for any confident predictions, and I don't think there's any final forecasts for then yet either, just the odd murmuring at best. This also probably applies to much of Autumn, especially late October and November (even much of September and early October is pretty speculative in reality I would imagine. Not that I'm saying long range predictions are worthless mind just that obviously the further away from the present a forecast tries to predict the greater the room for error. This would also apply if forecasts were predicting anomalously cold conditions, even though it would be exciting for many of us. But as ever no matter what a forecast says, it's what ends up really happening above our heads in any given moment that matters and which we remember.

Yeah defiantly. Back in my school days Summer didn't truly start until the 6 weeks holidays did, even if it was sunny and hot before then. Can't imagine having that much time off now the most I get is a week at any one time. Though I could book 2 weeks together if I wanted too but been as I only get so many weeks a year I don't like to have too much time off in one go, otherwise I might have too wait a long time between holidays which would be depressing.

Oh yeah I forgot about Summer 2013, which as you say wasn't bad. But really I mean in terms of a prolonged or intense spell of summery conditions (especially heat wise) which hasn't been experienced since July 2006. Though of course there has been bits and bobs since then such as last week for example, which is more than we've had during some Summer's like 2007 and 2012, which already makes this Summer better than those. But this decade still has yet hasn't delivered a month in the same league as July 2006, August 2003 or August 1995. Which is more the point I was making and these cover the 90's and 00's alone. 1990 and 1991 were also I believe decent Summers. Then going back to the 80's I believe 1989, 1984 and 1983 produced good Summers. As for the 70's there was the infamous Summer of 1976. This is why I say the 2010's so far has yet to achieve a exceptional spell of Summer weather and if it fails to do so before the end of the decade (there's no way of telling this yet though) it would be the first decade since the 1960's to not do so. Then again there's still 3 Summer's left in this decade and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them did so. Fingers crossed and all that if that's what you want. Although personally I'm a little indifferent to Summer weather (though I prefer dry and sunny to cloudy and wet) and it doesn't bother me how Summers go too much. I'm much more of a Winter lover really (so long as the Winter provides very cold temperatures with plenty of settling snow that is).

What's interesting is the fact we haven't had any particularly sunny and hot Summer months this decade so far and we have to go back to July 2006 for the most recent one. Of course we can't for sure write off August just yet despite the poor outlook, and there's still Summer's 2017, 2018 and 2019 to change things. But what would be interesting (though it's only hypothetical for now) is if next month as well as the next 3 Summer's fail to produce any particularly sunny and hot months it would make the 2010's the first decade since the 1960's to not do so. Not that I want this to happen mind, but it would be interesting nonetheless. Though in all honestly I think the law of averages alone should give us a decent Summer before this decade's out. Even if not surely the 2020's should provide one.

Saw two tailess froglets in my pond today. The transformation is complete. Though there are plenty of others still to catch up.

Seems to be a much broader variety of frogs and toads and newts/salamanders in France than the UK. Seems like we got a pretty bad deal here in comparison. But being as were living on an island I suppose much less got settled here before Britain went from being a peninsula to an island. I imagine the species we have got such as the Common frog, Common toad, Natterjack toad, Smooth newt, Palmate newt and Great crested newt, as well as the now restricted population of Pool frogs migrated this far west and north before that happened or maybe there used to be a greater variety that have since died of but because we're cut of from mainland Europe by the sea those previous populations couldn't be sustained?

These look like either Marsh frogs or Pool frogs to me which are collectively part of the European green frog grouping, whereas the Common frog belongs to the brown frog group which both belong to the Latin termed 'Ranidae' or true frogs as opposed to tree frogs, or true toads 'Bufo Bufo' and such. The Pool frog does exist in the UK but only on one site in the Breckland area of Norfolk where there is a conservation scheme. And I posted a Wikipedia link about them on the previous page. Your right though they are noisy.

Well that's ashame for the poor frog, though it's just the workings of the natural world. I've never actually seen a grass snake though there pretty rare these days in the UK I think and there probably more likely to be seen in National Parks than the suburbs. I don't know what species of frogs you've got there in south west France though the Common frog is a fairly quiet one which tends to have a purring type of call rather than the classical ribbit type sound you hear on cartoons and such (though apparently this stock sound effect comes from frogs in North America and is why this sound is ingrained in our heads during childhood of how a frog should sound) . I don't know why they would be making so much noise at this time of year though as it's only males which make any noise in order to attract mates during the breeding season in order to attract mates, unless it's a species who's breeding season is around now, although I haven't heard of a one which breeds this late in the year. Though they could be doing it for territorial purposes I suppose.

Have seen many more froglets (still with tails) this evening. What's amazing is if you see my post at the top of this page from 13th April I was reporting then how the frogspawn was just hatching and on the previous page I reported my first blob of frogspawn on 21st March. That's only about 2 and a 1/2 to 3 months ago. It's amazing how quickly they've developed. It's been a 3 or 4 years since I've had any success with them. Last year they just seemed to stay as tadpoles right into the Autumn, without legs or anything except maybe a couple and then just disappeared for some reason. I wonder why last year and this year are so different? Good to see they're doing well this year though.

Thanks Spikecollie, I'll look forward to that. Just like to confirm from my post yesterday that some of the tadpoles in my pond have indeed become froglets. I saw 3 or 4 hopping around atop the duck weed this morning. They've still got their tails but these will be absorbed shortly. The adult I reported earlier ad it's head poking up as well and there are still newts in there which I see slithering about from time to time, so it's amphibian city in there at the moment.

Although I'm not completely sure I thought I saw one tadpole in my pond today which is almost a froglet. It was just poking up on the duck weed and its body shape seemed very frog like yet it still had a full tail. I only saw it briefly though because when I approached it slipped back underwater (and hence the thick coating of duck weed) so I couldn't tell if it's arms had developed. I suspect they had though so I imagine a greater number will be seen in time and from there fully formed froglets which will start to land on the lillies and outside the pond. I'll keep you informed as I do.

Do you know what species these are? Been as your on the continent these could be another species than the Common European frog, which are all you get here.

Just seen an adult frog popping its head up in my pond. The first time I've seen one in there since the breeding season. What with the tadpoles swimming around in there it's remarkable to think it looked just like them some years ago. I hope some of them get to its stage in life too. Though its a fact that only a minority of tadpoles reach its stage of maturity, though with many of them now with back legs surely some will.

Had a more intense look in my pond today and it seems quite a few of the tadpoles have now developed their back legs. Some are just budding whereas others are fully formed. Only a matter of time now till their bodies become more frog like now I would have thought. There are still newts in there as well. Unfortunately there are only very small gaps in the duckweed coating the surface now. The only way to remove it without removing tadpoles is by hand which takes a long time and even then it re-multiplies in a matter of days at this time of year. I tried netting out what was left from last year in February before the frogs came to spawn but you can't get every last little bit out and there only has to be the tiniest bit for it to take over come the Summer. There never used to be any either and how it got there is anybodies guess. It could have come stuck to the legs of an heron possibly. It's only a small pond as well so it can cover the surface in a matter of a few days and I'm not prepared to spend countless hours removing it. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a fish pond as I could just net a load out in minutes, but been a nature pond and more specifically a pond for amphibians the tadpoles are constantly at the surface so you have to be very careful whilst removing it and a net just won't discriminate between duckweed and tadpoles. It's a right headache really. If only there was something that would kill it off without damaging anything else. Maybe a December 2010 cold spell would do the trick but I've only had the pond since 2014 (it replaced a much bigger pond I had since 2000 but was filled in as the liner was spent and would no longer hold water, so I filled it in and put a smaller prefabricated pond in the middle of where it was) and the stuff only first took over last year and been as Winter 2015/16 was so mild it may have helped it hold on?

Flying rats is a turn usually reserved for feral domestic pigeons which inhabit most towns and cities, not wood pigeons which are a true wild species. Though the term is slightly misleading as i've heard they are generally disease free (though this could be wrong). It is true though that the wood pigeon population in the suburbs has exploded for some reason. Just the other day there was a dead wood pigeon on our lawn which must have been attacked by the local cats. I just left it there for the foxes to take away which must have happened as it was gone the next day with nothing left but a few feathers. There's nothing you can do about them anyway as they seem to be everywhere. The population could decline anyway at some point and there may have been times past with such high numbers which subsequently declined, so it could be a cyclical thing.

Torrential rain out there again at the moment. With the rumbling earlier I thought maybe a full on thunderstorm may have developed but not so. Whilst typing this the rain has actually calmed down again now.

Noticed a tadpole in my pond today which has developed its back legs though most appear not to have reached that stage yet and some are quite small still (Peter Pan tadpoles is a term i've heard used to describe such tadpoles). There could be more but they're a bit difficult to observe at the moment as the water is very green and as happened last year duckweed has coated most of the surface. Removing it is a losing battle as it multiplies very quickly and by doing so you unwittingly remove many tadpoles with it. Nevertheless if that one tadpole is anything to go by, they're on their way to becoming froglets. I'll keep you updated on further developments.

It's rumbling out there now in the distance with steadily increasing rain.

Interesting how there were so few hot Summer months prior to the 1970s. Although I presume these are based on the CET figures for individual calendar months and that there are perhaps 30-31 day periods that crossover 2 different months which would have been just as hot or hotter. Nevertheless it seems that hot Summer months are as relatively uncommon as cold Winter months in the UK's climate with the last hot one being a decade ago now. In fact the 2010s decade is still yet to achieve such a Summer month and if we don't get one before 2020 it will be the first decade since the 1960s not to achieve one. There's still July and August as well as Summers 2017, 2018 and 2019 to change this though.

If there are frogs in your area, it's a mystery they haven't yet used your pond to spawn in yet? Although they may next year or beyond. I personally introduced spawn myself originally from a variety of sources such as a couple of family friends garden ponds as well as a couple of natural ponds for the first couple of years of having a pond about 16 years ago. However i've since learned this isn't apparently recommend as there is a risk of spreading diseases such as red leg (a fatal disease for frog populations) so I don't recommend it. Maybe it's too small for them, or they simply have yet to notice it? As there are already frogs about though there stands a good chance they'll use it to spawn eventually (though a bigger pond would probably boost your chances. Have you considered a prefabricated pond?). Just see what happens next year for now though would be my advice.

All tadpoles are now big enough to swim around the pond now. They've also all got eyes and have developed they're colours, which are various shades of brown speckled with gold. They'll just grow bigger now until they're ready to start metamorphosis. That'll be a few weeks at least yet though.

Have had a storm here. Was walking home from Aldridge to Walsall Wood and it was overcast and humid with a few distant rumbles to start with. By the time I got near home it kicked off with a few flashes and bangs, the wind picked up and it started raining very intensely with a bit of hail mixed in which caused reduced visibility. I had the soaking of my life.

Have had a thunderstorm here. Was walking home from work in Aldridge and it was quite overcast and humid with a few distant rumbles. By the time I got to Walsall Wood it a few flashes started and then boom, the heavens completely opened and though it may be a bit of a cliche I don't think I've ever seen rain like that. It was coming down so heavy visibility was impaired the roads started flooding and I had the drenching of my life. There was a bit of hail mixed in too. The thunder seems to have ended now though, but it's not a bad start considering we didn't get any thunder (as far as I remember) until July last year and then only once. There certainly has like snow been very little thunder round here the last few years, hopefully 2016 can give us some interesting weather back.

Very heavy snow with big snowflakes coming down now.