First Frogspawn!!!!! And Accompanying Frog…………..

By Bernie Bell

As I walked down the garden one morning last week, to feed the birds, I heard splashing’s, then I saw leaping’s, then I heard “Ribbit ribbit ribbit”. The pond was full of frogs! Loads of them, leaping and croaking. And some are really BIG ones! SPRING!

Then, next day…………..more croaking and kerfuffle in the pond, so I went to have a look, and found…………………frogspawn!!!!! They’re going mad!!!

A bit early, but such a sign of Spring!

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Tagged as: Bernie Bell, frogs, march, Mike Bell, News, Spring, Weather

As this has been so popular, I’ll tell a wee tale………..
When we first set up the pond https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/08/14/bernie-bell-i-can-hear-the-grass-grow/ and wanted to encourage frogs to live there, we went to see our friend in Harray, who has a wildlife pond, which, at the time, was full of frogs, and spawn. So, we filled a couple of buckets with water and spawn, and introduced them to our pond. Then, a couple of days later, Fiona-Who-Is-No-Longer-Living-Next-Door, set off on a walk to Binscarth Woods, near Finstown. On the first section of the path, through the field, she saw a big puddle, full of frogspawn. When the puddle dried out, the frogs would be gonners, so, Fiona came home and told us, and Mike went with a couple of buckets, rescued all the spawn, and added that to our pond, too. We now have at least three kinds of frog – some really huge ones – I don’t know what kind they are – even their spawn is big and has bigger black dots in it.
At the moment, the pond is, literally, HEAVING with frogs! It happens every year, mad activity for about two weeks, then they disperse again. The left hand end of the pond is solid frogspawn. And the noise they make! You can hear it right up by the house. Some stay all through the summer, but the others roam all over the garden – can frogs be said to roam, or do they…..lollop? As you can tell – I like frogs

2 replies »

Bernie Bell says:

March 6, 2019 at 9:29 am

As this has been so popular, I’ll tell a wee tale………..
When we first set up the pond https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/08/14/bernie-bell-i-can-hear-the-grass-grow/ and wanted to encourage frogs to live there, we went to see our friend in Harray, who has a wildlife pond, which, at the time, was full of frogs, and spawn. So, we filled a couple of buckets with water and spawn, and introduced them to our pond. Then, a couple of days later, Fiona-Who-Is-No-Longer-Living-Next-Door, set off on a walk to Binscarth Woods, near Finstown. On the first section of the path, through the field, she saw a big puddle, full of frogspawn. When the puddle dried out, the frogs would be gonners, so, Fiona came home and told us, and Mike went with a couple of buckets, rescued all the spawn, and added that to our pond, too. We now have at least three kinds of frog – some really huge ones – I don’t know what kind they are – even their spawn is big and has bigger black dots in it.
At the moment, the pond is, literally, HEAVING with frogs! It happens every year, mad activity for about two weeks, then they disperse again. The left hand end of the pond is solid frogspawn. And the noise they make! You can hear it right up by the house. Some stay all through the summer, but the others roam all over the garden – can frogs be said to roam, or do they…..lollop? As you can tell – I like frogs

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Bernie Bell says:

March 27, 2019 at 9:51 am

This morning, Mike saw a Heron, rise from the pond. It had probably been gobbling frogs – fair enough, a Heron’s gotta eat, and there really are a lot of frogs in our pond and garden.

This is a first for us though – we’ve seen Herons fly over, and standing in the bay, down the road from us, but not actually in the garden before.
It shows that, if you give them a place, and a space, the life will turn up.
B

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