Walsall Wood Snow

I reduced the size of my old punctured pond last May. Basically I filled it in and put a prefabricated one in the middle of where the big one was. Anyway a few frogs have made use of it and there's currently about 6 or 7 clusters of frogspawn in it. Last year I saved the spawn in a container which was layed in the still watertight bottom of the old pond. However when I transferred the tadpoles to the newly completed pond a couple of months later they mysteriously disappeared except the odd one within a week. There were hundreds maybe thousands before that. Even if I went all round with a net I wouldn't find any which was strange. Hope to have more luck with them this year. My next door neighbour has had far more spawn than me, but alas has fished it all out and threw it away predictably. Such is his idiotic hatred of real nature and his love of man bred fish. I should note that he has 2 ponds and the pond the frogs use isn't the one with the fish, that being raised. I don't understand why he has the other one besides being connected to the fish pond via the pump creating a waterfall effect into it. He only gets rid of the spawn because a few years ago a male frog accidentally killed one of his fish. He used to fish the frogs out as well and drive them away somewhere but I think he's stopped this after me complaining to much about it. Anyway I think people like him shouldn't be allowed a pond if that's what he's going to do. The thing is aswell I'm responsible for introducing them in the first place. There are no natural ponds near me that aren't separated by busy roads and nobody else on our street has one to my knowledge. So basically when I first had the pond put in, for the first few years I put the spawn in myself from a couple of friends ponds. Over time the population exploded but unfortunately the bulk of them decided to use my neighbours pond for breeding which is pointless anyway (not that they understand). Anyway I just hope that I we can get a good few to develop this year, as it's been at least 3 years since the last time what with my pond getting punctured and my taddies mysterious disappearance last year. Sorry for length of post by the way.

Any chance fortunes could change for us slightly further south at lower elevations?

Really disappointed so far. Last Tuesdays event gave a better cover and even that didn't last long. Hope things improve later in the night. If not then theres always February and if were really lucky a March like 2013. Not getting my hopes up though.

Starting to get heavier again now now with bigger flakes. Not sticking much though at the moment. Will look again in half an hour or so.

Starting to intensify and stick here in Walsall Wood(only just though). Hope it keeps up.

Heres hoping for a classic cold and snowy 40s-80s style winter.

Would love to see a winter that beats 1683/84 for the CET. Would also love to see the record broke for the snowiest, whatever winter that is? Though I believe it's 1946/47 for last century at least.

Saw something amazing today. In my neighbours pond(which I can easily view as its right next to my garden fence) out of all tne frogs there was one that looked a little different. This was clearly a female common toad which just so happened to have a male common frog on her back. There are no other toads in there, which I can tell because its shallow, got clear visibility and virtually no plants in there. And yes I can easily tell the two species apart. Now I was just wondering if it's at all possible for the two species to successfully breed? Has anybody here heard of a frog/toad hybrid? Or are the two species so genetically seperated to make this impossible? Any thoughts? Even if it did happen though my neighbours would only remove the spawn anyway (to know why see my post above) though they may not be able to do it as easily with toadspawn as they can with frogspawn.

Have plenty of activity here and plenty of frogspawn. One problem i've got though is my next door neighbours. They have two big ponds, one full of fish and the other is supposedly a nature pond. They used to leave the frogs alone but a few years ago a male latched onto one of their fish and it died. As a result they have been trying to rid themselves of the frogs (not that they've been successful) and this has really annoyed me. At first they used to fish the frogs out and transport them elsewhere. Now thankfully I think they've given this up but they still remove all the frogspawn. The thing that worries me is that the frogs might die out due to unsuccessful breeding. I've my own pond but it's getting old now, the liners had it and i'm thinking this year that i'm either going to have to replace it or get one of those pre fabricated ones. I'ts still watertight at the bottom though and the frogs are still using the shallow water at the bottom to mate. But it's ugly and needs fixing. I realise that as long as I have a pond for frogs my neighbours will never be rid of them but their ignorance still concerns me. Thing is there were few if any frogs in my area until I had my pond about 14 years ago, due to lack of wetlands and busy roads all round my house. I actually introduced the spawn from a friends pond for the first 2 or 3 years then they just exploded. However my next door neighbours decided they wanted a fish pond. Their first wasn't really deep enough so they had another with raised sides next to it. The frogs of course took advantage and all was OK until that one incident about 5 years back. Now I fear they may wreck my dream of having a true frog pond. I'm just hoping that my efforts will prevent them going extinct. I've tried explaining that such instances as theirs are rare and frogs are harmless. They however just see them as pests and don't want to know. It's so sad. If only frogs were protected I could report them, but it would be silly to fall out with your neighbours over some amphibians. Sigh. I guess i'll just have to put up with it and continue with my own efforts by having a pond of my own.

Speaking of white Christmas's and there general rarity. It kind of annoys me how some people especially older ones, try to claim they were the norm when they were younger. When truth is they have always been as rare as hens teeth in this part of the world. This either suggests a case of false memories or outright lies. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if in my 28 years so far, I have seen nearly as many white Christmas's as an 100 year old! All of these occuring I think after the turn of the new millenum. ie 2001 (falling briefly), 2004 (falling and settling), 2009 ( if you count odd patches) and 2010 (lying).

A November and December like 2010 followed by a January like 1963 followed by a February like 1947 in turn followed by a March like this year would have to be my wish.

If they can change like that at such short time scales then they can hardly be deemed reliable can they? Besides no point getting hung up about what Autumns like. Like Spring I view it simply as a gateway season. Summer and Winter are the true seasons and they can be warm or cold no matter what their respective Spring and Autumns are like. Like this summer was warm but was preceeded by a cold spring.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Thanks for the replies guys.

The other day somebody told me that global warming must be true because these days on a sunny day in the UK you can get a tan/sunstroke in a matter of hours yet they also said 20-30 years ago it would have to be sunny for days for this to happen. Is this true or were they talking rubbish? Sorry if this seems a silly question but I would like an answer from somebody who knows what they're talking about.

Somebody told me the other day that global warming must be true because these days on a sunny day in the UK you can get a tan/sunstroke in a matter of hours. Yet 20-30 years ago it would have to be sunny for days for this to happen. Is this true or were they talking rubbish? Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I would like an answer from somebody who knows what they're talking about.

What do you mean GW by the arctic ocean becoming like the rest of the earths oceans? Are we doomed to have ice free arctic winters aswell as summers (which have not occured yet either)? As for solar max approaching iv'e heard it's predicted to be a weak affair anyway? So maybe thats one positive?

Well then youv'e got to wonder whether it would indeed take another ice age to reverse things. Maybe were still really in the last one and we won't be truly out of it until theres no ice left? (if it comes to that) But what could trigger another ice age anyway? I guess wer'e just going to have to wait and see? Surprised the news doesn't make much of this. But then again they only report dramatic weather and climatic stories if there is a direct human impact.

Well there was a time not so long ago that some people thougt we wouldn't have a below average winter here, then winter 2009/2010 came along which was the coldest since 1978/1979. So you never know?

Is it possible for a a harsh arctic winter to reverse this trend. ie its so cold it thickens the sea ice enough for the following summers to have a much more minimal bearing or is it going to take another ice age?

I'd be very cautious about claiming this isn't unprecedented. If this was relativly common current arctic ecosystems wouldn't have evolved. And if anybody had watched 'Frozen Planet' last Autumn they would know that current warming is already having a negative impact.

Do you think this will eventually lead to the UK having milder winters? Or could it strangely have an opposite effect? 2007 is often talked about in this thread as the year when everything changed or the perfect storm. Strange though that a series of cooler/colder seasons (obviously whith exceptions esp. 2011 except for the summer) occured soon after that year. The seasons previously all the way back to the late 80s mostly set a warming trend that looked unlikely to change, yet now we are seeing record warmth in the arctic, we in the UK are left in the cold. Is this trend likely to continue or can we expect more warmth here as the arctic warms? Can a winter month such as Dec 10 reoccur or will this become ever more unlikely? Thanks in advance to any replies.

You could be right the PIT. However i'm sure I remember reading somewhere that a tadpole who has developed back legs before most of the rest of the shoal (if thats the correct term) usually get eaten by the masses who haven't.

You shouldn't have to feed tadpoles as they eat the micro organisms/bacteria already in the water (there should be plenty of these if you're getting the water from a beck) aswell as algae which will form naturally. They also sometimes become cannibalistic when they grow bigger. The ones most at risk are early developers and the smaller tadpoles will sometimes attack and eat them, though I believe this is quite rare. Of the many tadpoles you see in a pond few will reach sexual maturity as they are preyed on by all sorts from water insects, newts and fish (not a good idea to put fish in a nature pond). And it doesn't stop there as those that manage to reach the tiny frog stage are preyed upon by birds. This is why frogs lay so many eggs so as at least some might stand a chance of reaching adulthood. I think its something like 5 in a thousand on average.

Frogs usually find a damp solitary spot to sit and hide after the breeding season. They'll usually remain there unless disturbed waiting for a tasty meal to cross their path (they don't eat atall during the breeding season). Sometimes they return to ponds during warm dry weather as their skin must remain moist, unlike toads who are adapted to dry environments. But other than that you'll rarely see them until next year.