Frog Spawn

[wildflower]

I have frog spawn in my little pond..Doubt if it will survive its really early it doesnt normally appear till february/march.Has anyone else seen any yet ???

[Lance Morgan]

That is amazing. Very early but frost will kill it surely

[wildflower]

I have had hard frosts all week not sure how long the spawn has been their as i only look in once a week ..
yes i am sure if the frosts dont get it something will eat it.. Hope i get some more in feb/march as normal.

[richardkm]

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 recently about wildlife in the Scottish Highlands.

Apparently there the frog spawn over winters and hatches the following spring - this is because of the relatively short season in the northern latitudes.

So maybe your spawn will be okay and you'll get tadpoles next spring when the weather warms up

[Washy75]

Someone will no doubt use this to fan the flames of the "global warming" argument. Amazing though. I actually saw lots of frogs the other week. There was a window of damp mild weather. Maybe that changed their behaviour patterns?

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Washy75

Someone will no doubt use this to fan the flames of the "global warming" argument. Amazing though. I actually saw lots of frogs the other week. There was a window of damp mild weather. Maybe that changed their behaviour patterns?

Could be they come out of hibernation in the milder damp weather (Febish time often) maybe they thought winter was over?

[Marineboy]

Just a thought - could you sink the spawn deeper into the water, away from the surface. I have found it is the freezing on the surface that actually kills it off. The cold winter temperatures in deeper water may be sufficient to keep it in a suspended state until the water warms a little and they start hatching. It would be a shame to lose a whole years worth of local frog genetics.

[wildflower]

I will look tommorow to see if i can sink it at all..
I am in the west midlands and we have had some really hard frosts i dont think the spawn has been their long less than a week i guess..
Its funny really but earlyier this year i had frog spawn two seperate blobs of it so it may happen again this time.
My pond is only small about 3x3 but the frogs seem to love it and its less than 2 years old we counted about a dozen heads in it back in june as well as tadpoles swimming around.its a real scruffy pond edged with old branches and wildflowers/grasses and herbs..and ivy twisting around but its very popular..just goes to show you dont have to spend a fortune.

[wildflower]

We have fields at the rear of us with lots of rats and we caught 3 of them over the holidays eating the frog spawn we had in our little pond...Wont tell you what i called them !!!

[aeshna5]

Year before last I had a couple of Brown Rats in my garden that were intially attracted to the pond for drinking but on discovering there were thousands of tadpoles were often seen diving + removing them from the pond to eat.

I reluctantly removed the Brown Rats.