Frogs, newts and spawn

[picog]

Down the local Middleton Dale here there is masses of frog spawn on the mud flats at the edge of the river,  which is slowly drying up as it does every year due to poor river management and local mining, is it best to move the spawn to another location or let nature take it's course ?

Down the local Middleton Dale here there is masses of frog spawn on the mud flats at the edge of the river,  which is slowly drying up as it does every year due to poor river management and local mining, is it best to move the spawn to another location or let nature take it's course ?

If you leave it something will benefit from it by eating it, if you move it, it may hatch successfully, and then something will benefit from eating most of the tadpoles. Hobson's choice really.

[picog]

Spawning picking up well now. Mid 20s clumps of spawn. Saw a very large crested newt (I think) in the pond the other evening — huge compared with all the others — it must have been 18-20cm long and very thick. Most of the other newts (mainly palmates) are cute and small.

[Polar Maritime]

Yes Pic, I have left it be and let nature look after it. With rain forecast over next week it could survive, after a walk down yesterday evening its still holding on in there, but patches at the top of the spawn mounds is starting to dry up.

[Walsall Wood Snow]

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.

[The PIT]

Spawning now ceased tons of spawn though.

[picog]

Spawning finished here too. Looks like about 30 clumps, but there could be more among the weeds.

[picog]

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.

Even if you have no luck this year, if you can repair your pond, the frogs will come back. As before, you can always introduce some spawn from elsewhere. Pity about the neighbours. Edited March 21, 2014 by picog

[frogesque]

We have our first clump of spawn this morning! Gone chilly again but it doesn't seem to be putting them off as there is a lot of activitity in the pond. Some of the females especially look huge so it could be a bumper year.

[picog]

We have our first clump of spawn this morning! Gone chilly again but it doesn't seem to be putting them off as there is a lot of activitity in the pond. Some of the females especially look huge so it could be a bumper year.

I find it very striking how the frogs are not put off by cold weather. Maybe once they are ready to spawn, they just have to do it and there is no turning back?

[The PIT]

I think the spawning depend son the temperature of the water. Certainly there was a brief break in the spawning here before it resumed gain.

[Walsall Wood Snow]

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.

[SteveB]

Saw tadpoles in the pond this weekend.

[picog]

All tadpoles now hatched. Had a heron down yesterday — ate a lovely adult great crested newt and another smaller newt:-( After than I shooed it away!