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Frogs spawn

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Liz Heard View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Liz Heard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jan 2020 at 6:46pm
Glad your tadpoles 'made it' Lalchitri.

Last Tuesday, noting the frosts that had prevailed over the last few days in the Helston area, i had just been on the 'phone to a friend confidently assuring him that despite climatic 'Cornwall weighting', it was too cold for frog spawn.
Then five minutes later the 'cosmic joker' of Fortean legend struck:





Never make bold assertions!
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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jan 2020 at 10:10am
I would imagine the survival prospects of that spawn are pretty low, what triggers the laying, does it have to be a cold spell followed by a period at a certain temperature so they think Spring has arrived, or is totally random and just depends on a male and female meeting at the right time?

Winter hasn't arrived here in the South East yet, 1 or 2 very mild frosts and that is it, still quite a few hedgehogs running around the village which is almost unheard of, the odd one may wake up for a feed but these are all ones that haven't gone into hibernation yet. Also, a lot of weed has started to sprout back up in the pond, even a lily leaf, so it seems like everything is starting far too early this year.

Will put my camera on the pond and see what is happening with the frogs around here, checked for Slow Worms yesterday but not surprisingly didn't see any.


Edited by chubsta - 27 Jan 2020 at 10:12am
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jan 2020 at 1:06pm
We had a recent series of frosty nights, but now it is back to dim damp days. Yesterday was very mild so I went out with camera last night and heard frogs dive into two of the ponds. I guess this disturbance makes the newts dive for cover as I only photographed a couple, but also five newtlets. 
With all the mild weather a nice lot of pond weed had grown, but the frost and freezing of the ponds has killed it off.
Although I live in East Devon, where I live is not early for spawn - judging from images on here! I live in a valley bottom, maybe too cold. Also two of my ponds do not start to get the sun till mid Feb. which I'm sure must be a factor.
Suz
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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jan 2020 at 7:47pm
Put the camera on the pond and can see three frogs as I type this, quite active too, swimming about.

Surprisingly saw a frog heading to the beach earlier when walking to the dogs, ended up picking him up and putting him back in some bushes, if he had gone onto the beach there would have been no way back up the wall. Strange to see so much activity in late January
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Caleb View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Caleb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2020 at 4:46pm
Originally posted by chubsta chubsta wrote:

what triggers the laying, does it have to be a cold spell followed by a period at a certain temperature so they think Spring has arrived, or is totally random and just depends on a male and female meeting at the right time?

There's a whole chapter on this in Maxwell Savage's book on the common frog. His conclusion was that it's probably algal growth that triggers them to spawn, which itself depends on a bunch of factors including rainfall, sunlight, and temperature. 

It's worth reading for his reasoning as to why various factors (especially temperature) can't alone explain the spawning date. The whole book can be read on archive.org:
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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2020 at 6:05pm
Originally posted by Caleb Caleb wrote:

There's a whole chapter on this in Maxwell Savage's book on the common frog. His conclusion was that it's probably algal growth that triggers them to spawn, which itself depends on a bunch of factors including rainfall, sunlight, and temperature. 

It's worth reading for his reasoning as to why various factors (especially temperature) can't alone explain the spawning date. The whole book can be read on archive.org:

Thanks very much for the link, you have to love the internet, when you get away from all the trash on it it really is a great resource...
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GemmaJF View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GemmaJF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2020 at 12:22pm
Savage puts across a good argument. I always suspected it may also be an explanation for why common frogs sometimes spawn in one pond, whilst totally ignoring an apparently suitable one nearby. I wonder if the algal content could be part of the explanation.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2020 at 5:53pm
Temp up to 14 deg C in East Devon today. Still 11 deg as I type. Been out and listened by the ponds and several frogs leaping into the water.
Suz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Feb 2020 at 4:18pm
Overnight the frogs here have massed in the ponds. There are possibly as many as a dozen active in each of two ponds, and a clump of spawn has also appeared overnight. Some croaking to be heard as well. This is three weeks earlier than last year.
Suz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2020 at 10:30am
I have been thwarted by this weather when trying to photograph the frogs, but this morning just after eight it was clear and still but cool so I had another go. I wondered if they were still in the pond but yes they are. I waited for almost ten minutes for some frogs to surface and then managed to capture these three. There were more but they were keeping below the surface.


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