They're back!

Welcome back!

Hello there!

I love spring! My amphibian friends who spend the winter hiding away under rocks and in the bottom of ponds have all reappeared. They have already started repopulating the pond with tadpoles, and are once again to be found wandering (toads really do wander) around the garden again at night.

What do you think, shall we get in?

Just taking a break!

They're back!

Spring must be here!

Fighting a losing battle

This is the evil tree which does nothing but drop leaves into our garden.

Earlier this week the whole family took to the garden to clear leaves (Wednesday)

Now all the leaves are back again, with a vengence!

At least some trees barely have any leaves left to drop

There have been a lot of ladybugs around, presumably looking for access to our bedroom where they will spend the winter!

The fish are getting ready to hibernate too

As are the frog, this is Tiddler the tiniest frog (you can't tell from this photo) watching us as we cleared the leaves

Talking of losing battles, this is the foxes attempt to completely undermine the shed at the end of the garden!

Frog Blog

This is Freddy Frog (one of our regulars) who always takes the same spot in the Frog Pond.

This is Tiddler, King Frog and Fat Friend - another group of our regulars.

Not expecting to see much more of the amphibians this year as it is getting colder and they will all soon be hibernating.

Toadspace

Don't know about you... I'm off for a swim

Toadspace

You lookin' at me?

Night-time visitors

It gets pretty busy in our garden sometimes. During the day there are a variety of birds who come to eat from the wood pigeons and the blackbird to the sparrows, robins and tits. There are also a lot of snails and slugs who call it home... as we don't have a great deal of plant life apart from the shrubbery and they don't make visible impact we allow them to stay - apart from anything else they are good meals for the rest of the wildlife.

There are of course all the insects that inhabit the blooms of the shrubbery too... butterflies, bumble bees, honey bees, all sorts of other bugs - including the other day a three inch long dragonfly!

When the sun goes down the garden wildlife carries on. After dark there are the frogs and toads and the foxes. I was out last night admiring the huge amount of amphibian life enjoying the frog pond when I noticed a pair of eyes glowing in my torch light. At first I thought it might be a cat as it didn't run when I approached... but on closer inspection turned out to be a (very tame) fox. I think he was wondering what I was doing in 'his' garden!

I just hope he wasn't thinking about eating some of the frogs and toads out enjoying the evening!

Frog Chorus

"Old Croaker" as he has become known has been sitting amongst the reeds and lily pads in the fish pond calling out for all his amphibian friends. Yesterday evening I found a whole heap of clichés as there were several frogs sat on lily pads... I suppose that they are clichés for a reason!

"Dum-dum-dum.... we all stand together"

My little piranhas!

The shoal of fish in the pond seem to love the sunny weather, swimming around in little shoals doing fishy things... until they hear my voice at which point they all congregate near the side of the pond to wait for dinner, whereupon the water bubbles with snapping jaws... just like a bunch of piranhas!

Little wigglers!

Our fears that all the frog spawn had been killed by the recent cold snaps have proved unfounded. The edge of the pond is already getting crowded with dozens of tiny tadpoles. There still seems to be a lot of frog spawn floating about; but future amphibian residents of our garden have started their journey as tadpoles.

Frogs again

It was quite a mild evening last night, so Rich and I went out in the garden to check on the frogs. They were in the Big Pond, in the Frog Pond, in the Toad Tray, on the path, in the flower beds and on the decking. Just about everywhere - croaking, squeaking and generally leading busy frog lives.

Amphibian nursery

All the emergency pond work has been worth it, Jaws might be the only fish left, but the frogspawn is now being laid. If I open the bedroom window I can hear one of the bull-frogs in the middle of the pond advertising for a mate. Frogs are such clichés... not only do they actually sit on lily pads when they get a chance, but they also go 'gribbit'.

Frogs are back

After not having seen any frogs around for a while they were back again tonight. The first we encountered just outside the back door where the decking doesn't quite meet the house and there is a small gap. Said frog was using the famous small animal logic "if I can't see you then you can't see me", and was sitting with this head under the decking and his bottom poking out. So, I scooped him up and took him back to the Frog Pond.

Some time later we went into the kitchen to find another frog, this time sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. He looked a little bemused I thought, he'd obviously taken a wrong turn at the back door and instead of finding himself in the dark damp space under the decking found himself in the bright blue airy space in the middle of our kitchen floor. When we turned the light on he turned round and started walking to the back door (frogs look very funny when they walk instead of hop). So, I picked him up and took him back to the Frog Pond as well! King Frog and the first rescued frog were both sitting there to greet him!

Garden Gang (again)

Whilst I was sitting in the garden yesterday afternoon I was delighted to see a lot of my friendly wildlife out and about:


Blackbird having dinner


Squirrel sunbathing


Molly sunbathing


Assorted fish enjoying the sunshine

I also managed to get some new pictures of this summer's crop of amphibians - and some snails which had colonised what used to be a pot of coriander!


Small frog


King Frog with a smaller relative


Small frog hiding


Snails having destroyed coriander!