What a wonderful night!

[Madelinew]

Went outside to put some rubbish in the bins at about 10 last night and I could hear a lovely frog chorus coming form my pond (far superior in every way to Paul McCartney's version ) Took my torch down to investigate at which point they all vanished beneathed the surface but I did find the spawn teaming with newts feeding on it. Normally, they disappear as soon as I appear beside the pond in the daylight but they obviously couldn't see me behind the torch and weren't bothered by the light. Lots of heavily laden females in amongst the feeders.

So I went to bed with the window open listening to the wonderful sound of little washboards being scraped in my pond. When I woke up this morning to the dawn chorus, the frogs had been replaced by a woodpecker drumming nearby.

The sap is most definitely rising out there!

[Hedge Witch]

Wonderful Madelinew You are very lucky indeed.

In some ways we are all lucky, to be blessed with such a fascination in the wildlife of Britain.

[Daisychain]

Why are my frogs quiet....? They dont make any noise at all!

[heliart]

I have the same problem - I counted 9 frogs a few days ago, with several pairs clamped together, but no spawn, and certainly no sound.

Hmmmm, perhaps I'm attracting the "tall, silent types".......

[Daisychain]

Originally Posted by heliart

I have the same problem - I counted 9 frogs a few days ago, with several pairs clamped together, but no spawn, and certainly no sound.

Hmmmm, perhaps I'm attracting the "tall, silent types".......

Ha ha..... well Im definately attracting the short, stumpy types....!!

[Madelinew]

I heard mine this morning when I went to the compost heap with a bucket of weeds. Thing is they seem to have amazing hearing. They hear me as soon as I arrive at the top of the path and I can hear them diving from the surface before they can see me. It's not a very loud call. It was clear last night as there was no other noise to cover it and the sound carried well on the still night air.

Nothing like the frog chorus when I lived in Malaysia. Every evening, they'd be competing for space with cicadas and air conditioning units. Very noisy!

Also amazing is the speed with which they develop in the tropics. I passed a puddle one morning which had spawn in it. As the puddle would have dried up during the day and there was no other water course nearby, I scooped it up into, of all things lying nearby, a KFC drinks cup and put it in an empty fish tank on the balcony of my apartment. Within a day of being laid, the spawn hatched and within less than 3 weeks, I was tipping froglets into the wet undergrowth near where I'd found the spawn.

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by heliart

I have the same problem - I counted 9 frogs a few days ago, with several pairs clamped together, but no spawn, and certainly no sound.

Hmmmm, perhaps I'm attracting the "tall, silent types".......

They usually croak to attract a mate but as yours are obviously in the throws of passion, there is no need to sing

[Madelinew]

Originally Posted by Hedge Witch

In some ways we are all lucky, to be blessed with such a fascination in the wildlife of Britain.

I never never understand how people can fail to be interested in what's around them. It's so fascinating - all the time. I constantly distracted and my husband knows when to shut up in mid conversation when he sees my hand moving towards the binoculars and my eyes trying not to focus on the movement I've just seen out of the corner of my eye.

I've spent most of the morning weeding and every trowel full of earth had something in it.

I find it uplifting, inspiring and so so interesting. Do all these other people just lack imagination?