If we open our kitchen doors we can hear the loud croaking of the many frogs in our pond. Creeping a little closer we can then hear the slightly quieter 'squeaking' of the toads. The newts (as far as we know) are noiseless. The numbers are growing each night, there must have been over twenty toads tonight and we had to take care not to tread on any as they emerged from the hedge behind the pond itself. There was also the somewhat weirdly disturbing sight of a pair of mating frogs with a ‘toad’ clasped on top!! We have seen three or more frogs together before – usually one female with two or more males trying to take ‘top’ position – but never frogs and toads together. Sadly, when matings get to three OR more like this, it can result in the poor female drowning. It is fabulous to see so many amphibians in one pond like this. We now eagerly await the spawn. Frog spawn is easy to spot as huge clumps of eggs are laid all wrapped in masses of jelly. Toad spawn is laid in strings, each egg wrapped in its own ball of jelly but all joined. Newt eggs are laid individually, again in protective jelly but wrapped in and under leaves of pond plants. We 'think' we may have smooth and palmate newts but need to get one or two out of the pond to have a really good look!!!
The only problem we have is that our pond is full of fish (as mentioned on 8th) and we mean 'full'. This probably explains why we saw no newtpoles when we looked in the pond last summer. Quite what we can do about this we are not sure but do wonder whether an evening fishing trip could catch a lot as we saw stacks this evening. Maybe an advert on FB might attract someone who wants fish – either that or we need to find a heron who prefers fish to amphibians.