Monday 24 February 2014

Frog and Toad

After several weeks of terrible weather Spring seems to be arriving in Exeter. The only insects I've seen so far have been a few caterpillars and a red admiral butterfly, but the amphibians are out in large numbers. As usual we've had around 50 to 100 frogs in the larger of our two ponds. We've also been lucky to see some toads on our daily walks, although we've yet to have one at Frog End. Toads have a lot of trouble on roads at this time of year when they migrate to ponds to spawn. There are volunteer toad patrols across the country to help carry them across safely, but our local toads don't appear to be crossing any of the main roads.

Tonight I spotted a newt with a (presumably) broken leg on the opposite side of the road from our house. It's now safely in the mud by our pond and seems to be much more responsive than it was on the pavement.

Frog End frogs (is it just me or is the last one smiling?):





I visited our newts down at the pond yesterday evening - they come to the surface more at night. They're still hard to photograph because they're underwater and swim quite fast, but at least you can see that it's a newt:


Common toad on Hart's Lane:



1 comment:

  1. Gosh. Although I have seen masses of spawn in my pond I've seen very few frogs and certainly nothing like the number you have. Perhaps there isn't enough cover for them and they either stay hidden on the bottom or under stones and flags or they disappear elsewhere as soon as they can.

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