Frog Blog 2010 – We have Frogspawn in the Office Pond

Last night there were clear skies and air temperatures dropped to near freezing.  We were concerned about the frogs in the pond that we had observed, they had been croaking at each other for two days but there had been on sign of spawn.

Frog Blog

We had seen the first frog of spring in the office pond about a week ago, we had been concerned about how many of these amphibians had survived given the very cold winter that we had endured (cold for UK standards).

To read the article about the first frog spotted: First Frog Seen in the Office Pond.

However, this morning there was mass of frogspawn laid in the shallows (one pair of frogs had bred), then shortly before 8am this morning (we arrived early to check on the frog’s progress), we observed a second mass of spawn being laid.  It is difficult to count all the frogs in the pond, they are moving around so much, but we think there are as many as seven in the pond.  This is the first time we have two sets of spawn laid in our pond.  It is only the third year that we have spawn laid in it at all.  One of our colleagues rescued what they thought was a female frog from a busy road a few days ago.  He put the frog in some shrubbery behind the pond.  We know that frogs instinctively try to return to the water they were born in to breed, but hopefully this frog would have stayed close to our pond as it would be much safer for it to have done so.  Perhaps it has spawned, we would like to think so.

Frogspawn

Today the weather is gorgeous, bright and sunny.  The frogs are still very active and the air temperature has climbed to 13 degrees Celsius (tropical).  As a result of all the frog activity we have banned ourselves from going outside in case we disturb the frogs so we have to observe them from the office window.

Hopefully, more frogs will breed over the next 24-hours or so.  However, interestingly, both sets of spawn produced so far have been laid in very shallow water.  Some of the spawn is actually exposed to the air.  It may be an old wives tale, but according to local folklore, if frogspawn is seen laid in deep water it indicates  a dry spring.  If frogspawn is laid in shallow water it indicates rain.  The weather forecast for the next few days is for showers and unsettled conditions, perhaps there is some truth in this folklore after all.

Update – ten frogs seen in the pond.