Gone A-Wooing

A frog he would a-wooing go,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
A frog he would a-wooing go,
Whether his mother would let him or no.
With a rowley, powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.



After hearing some croaking from the pond this morning I could see that the local frogs had definitely gone a-wooing.

Frogs Have Been Busy

My garden pond is looking a bit full in one quarter



Much of the rest of it is overgrown but with plenty of hiding places for the tadpoles when they appear.

Frog Spawn

In February, when we had an unseasonable spell of warm weather, I had heard frogs croaking in the garden pond. I only heard them the once so it was with some surprise I saw they had been busy in the meantime spawning in spite of the drop in temperature and the icy winds we are now enjoying.

A bit fuzzy as the gusty wind was making hand help shots a tad difficult:

Springing Into Life

Signs of Spring are springing up all over.

My tete-a-tete miniature daffs:





But the appearance of loads of frog spawn in the garden pond was unexpected considering how bleak and cold it has been recently:

What a Lot I've Got

Once I had finished trimming the lawn yesterday I had a quick look to see how the frog spawn in the garden pond was progressing. No frog spawn, now hundreds of tadpoles:







If they all grow up I will have to get a bigger pond, or bigger garden!

A Frog He Has a Wooing Been

To be honest I haven't seen or heard a frog yet this year but when I had a look at the pond a few minutes ago there was plenty of frog spawn to be seen:

 

Having a quick search through recent years this looks to be the earliest by about a week.
Most years it appears around the 20th of March.

A Frog He Would a Wooing Go

I could hear a frog in the garden pond while I was photographing the eclipse last Friday and today sees the first activity:









There are several clumps of spawn. One batch was laid in a partly sunken pot which would dry out when the water level drops so I transferred it to the 'nursery' pond.

Spring on Hold

The bit of warm weather was short lived. Plenty of gusty cold wind and temperature back to single figures for much of the time. That didn't stop the frogs which continued to produce their spawn:



It looks as though there are about sixteen lots in the garden pond. This should continue to develop when the temperature starts to rise again.

When I was checking through the video clips I took of the newt attacking the first batch of frog spawn I could see there were two of them. A male and a female:



The male with his light coloured belly with black spots can just be see towards the top right of the clip which I have slowed down.

A Frog He Would A-wooing Go

A frog he would a-wooing go,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
A frog he would a-wooing go,
Whether his mother would let him or no.
With a rowley, powley, gammon and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.

So starts the old nursery rhyme.
It has a rather sad ending but hopefully the local frogs will live to tell the tale:



At least two pair of mating frogs, lots of spawn and a forlorn looking wallflower(*):







That makes at least five lots of frog spawn in my garden pond so far.





It looks like being a bumper year for spawn.



If you don't know, or have forgotten, the nursery rhyme there is a beautifully illustrated old version on the Gutenberg site HERE.  (You may have to dismiss a 'welcome' box and then click on the 'read this book online HTML' choice, unless you want to download a version.)

(*) Wallflower -  a person who stays on the fringes of a dance or party on account of lacking a partner or being shy.

Spring Jelly Babies Under Attack

I've been checking my pond daily for a while on the look out for the first sign of frog spawn. None this morning but on returning from our afternoon walkies there it was. The first batch this year. I could see movement nearby and what looked like a webbed foot. I though it was a frog and fetched the 70D to take some shots and maybe some video:



Imagine my surprise when I eventually made out the shape of a newt:



After observing the activity for some time it became obvious that the newt was attacking the frog spawn as it probably thought it had found an easy meal:



To me that appears to be a female newt and she looks fairly fat so she may have seen the frog spawn as a rival to any she may be ready to lay. I will have to keep a sharp look out as I have never seen any newt spawn in the pond though there are at least five residents.

It is easy to tell which spawn is which as that from frogs makes a tightly packed clump in shallow water as in the photos above. Toads lay their spawn in strings usually wrapped around vegetation in slightly deeper water and newts lay individual eggs on submerged plant leaves.

I have never noticed this activity in the past though it could well have happened every year. It looks as though the spawn was quite a difficult meal to grab hold of and as the pond usually ends up with several batches of frog spawn there should still be some tadpoles and froglets later in the year.

Green and Brown and Things

Why is it always dull when I see something interesting, to me anyway, I want to photograph? A couple of grainy photos of infrequent visitors to my garden feeders, a Greenfinch and a female Blackcap on the same feeder:





The Blackcap is a fleeting visitor who will probably move on soon. Greenfinch numbers have suffered greatly in this area with many succumbing to finch disease over the past three years.


The laptop duly arrived on time. It is hard to believe it is second hand, not a mark on it. Soon had it logged in to my wireless network and tried out in the summerhouse. Much to my relief it worked perfectly:



Some things I like the iPad for but for browsing / surfing I find a 10 inch screen is too small. Now I am grappling and coming to terms with Windozy 7 as my main PC is still using XP. One of the reasons, besides cost, for buying s/h was that most new ones I was interested in now seem to have Windozy 8 loaded and I have no interest in that. I might have been tempted to go for a Mac of some sort but even used ones seem to cost the earth.


A few signs of Spring - finally there is frog spawn in the pond:



My primulas are flowering, when the ungrateful birds stop pulling them up and today I had the first wasp indoors. I killed a couple today. They were both very dopey and lethargic so I guess they had recently become active. The more early ones I can dispatch the fewer nests there will be later in the year.

First Flutters - Frog Spawn

Yesterday as I was pottering round the garden enjoying the Sunshine a Peacock Butterfly fluttered across in font of me and landed on some gravel. It looked a bit worse for wear but it was another sign that Spring is with us at last.



This afternoon a Large White fluttered across the front garden but it didn't stay for a photo call.

Earlier today I looked at the frogs and frog spawn on Hedgeland Tales and left a comment to say I didn't have any yet in my pond. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I checked my pond an hour or so later and saw two clumps of Frog Spawn which had appeared out of the blue.



Not a frog in sight though. I moved the spawn to the nursery pond as there are fish in the main one. A couple of hours later there was more spawn in the main pond but still not a frog in sight.

Tadpoles in the Nursery Pond

I had been a bit worried when the first clump of frog spawn in the nursery pond began to turn white as this usually means it wasn't fertilised. I need not have worried however as quite a few tadpoles have emerged from that batch and dozens from the second batch.



At least they are safe from the fish in the main pond so they should have a good chance of growing to a size where it will be safe to return them..

Bugs, Blooms and Frog Spawn

This morning I made my daily check of the pond to see whether any frogs had appeared. No, still no sign of any. I did get a clear view of one of the resident newts for a couple of seconds so I am now certain that at least one survived the winter. It was in view too briefly to get a photo though.

There are a few fish in the pond and I spotted a couple of fry which cannot be all that old as they are about 2.5cm long. Just as I was watching one of them it suddenly started darting about very haphazardly. Closer inspection showed that it had been caught by a Water Boatman which was intent in making a meal of it. That took me by surprise as I hadn't thought of Water Boatmen as being carnivorous. At least not until I checked with Wild England.





I had been looking out for signs of 'minibeast' life in the pond and this was the first I have seen this year. By Summer there will be lots of Water Boatmen and Pond Skaters about.

Despite the thermometer showing 9 degrees my hands were getting frozen holding the camera so I had a quick tour round the garden and came back in for a well needed cuppa! On the way I could see that the catkins on the Corkscrew Hazel are now fully open and that a clump of Muscari were looking at their best.





A couple of days ago there were scores of small flies appearing everywhere and I thought I was photographing one on the inside of the kitchen window ... until I looked at the results. So - one unidentified bug, size about 9mm:



Later:

Well knock me down with a feather!! I thought I heard croaking a couple of days ago but saw nothing. I have just had another look in the pond as the Sun had come out again and there it was. A nice big dollop of frog spawn.

In the main pond:


As the fish in the pond normally dispose of the tadpoles before they are big enough to survive I had prepared a nursery pond in an old water feature with plants and water from the main pond. I have now transferred a lot of the spawn along with sludge and water from the main pond. Next job will be to build a secure area in the main pond for the tadpoles as they hatch. Easier said than done. I tried last year but all the tadpoles managed to escape into the main part of the pond and I don't think any reached maturity.

In its temporary home:


Nest Box Update:

What are the Blue Tits up to? Bits of moss in - bits of moss out. Bits of straw in - bits of straw out again. Feathers appearing - feathers disappearing. Gradually there is more moss appearing in one corner of the box. They are certainly still active in the box - just so much dithering!

Present state of affairs: