Frogs and frogspawn

[SJANSELL]

Hi, my first post on this forum. I've some questions!

Today we have seen our first frogs on our smallish wildlife pond and in a very tiny little deeper pond we have. My husband counted 10. This is early for us in Northants. We have been frozen over a lot of the time and are likely to be so again a few times as we get late frosts.

My husband did make lots of holes and hideouts for the frogs when he built the pond.

We were planning on doing a bit of dredging (probably in a week's time) to get rid of remaining leaves and also to remove a big clump of plants that is oversize now.

Is it now too late to do this? Will our frogs mate soon or will they wait? I'm worried about disrupting them. Usually we have a few days of a 'mass mate' with a lot of heaving about and lots of spawn. Is this likely to happen yet? Do they mate more than once?

We also have lots of newts in the garden.

Many thanks for any help. Sarah

[brilee]

Hi Sarah,Personnally i wouldnt touch the pond at this time,it sounds you have encouraging healthy frogs around,and you will prob see spawning activity pretty soon depending on weather patterns,after the female has released her spawn she will often emerge from the pond,and its just one batch she will lay in a season,males have been known to remate.hope this helps,good luck Bri.

[frog123]

The number of frogs in my pond is growing daily but no spawn yet

[brilee]

Sounds promising,hope you get lots of spawn soon,all the best and good luck,Bri.

[Fool on the hill]

Still no frogspawn (or frogs that I could see) in Burley Nature reserve about 10 miles north of Bradford. In previous years its been first week of march but maybe later this year

[nealeholl]

I am new to this pond lark, but having dug out a large(ish) pond a couple of years ago, I'm keen to start studying the pond life in more detail. I accepted some frogspawn last year from a friend who was having to clean out his leaking pond.

THere are lots of posts about people seeing frogs in their ponds - i've never seen this. Should I be looking in the middle of the pond, or lurking in the margins? How big would they be? What's the best time of day or night?

[alih]

Saw two frogs in my pond this morning clinging on to each other for dear life! My pond was built in the summer of 2008 and although we had lots of frogs last spring we didn't have any spawn so I'm hoping for some this year

[dubqueen]

Im in Llantrisant, South Wales. I found 3 blobs of spawn on saturday and another one added yesterday at some time but not seen, or heard, one single frog! Mind you, Im a nurse and working l12.5 hour shifts doesnt help with the wildlife watching! Especially when my days off are spent indoors watching the rain.... A bit frosty here at the mo so hope that doesnt harm it too much.

The pond is now in its second year - last year we had two blobs so weve managed to double up in a year!

[joe_b]

Very excited as just found the first ever frog in my pond. I foolishly dug it at the end of Autumn last year, so had to endure a long frustrating winter waiting for any signs of life. Very happy, and fingers crossed for some spawn.

[Moonmoth]

How lovely Congratulations ! I had 2 frogs in Jan and now have none ! but am hoping this sunny weather will wake them all up today