Each year at this time I make some time to visit a large woodland on the edge of my local patch. The reason for this is because there lots of great wildlife there as it has multiple habitats in one area from Farmland, river, marsh and woodland. There's a large pond as well which seems to get bigger each year as the nearby river floods over the winter into the pond which increases the ponds size. Reeds and other pond plants have begun to grow as the Spring growth kicks in. I like to visit this pond once a week to check for Frog spawn and this year it's quite late. We found some clumps on Thursday 12th March this year and the last few years it has been in Mid February so there's quite a difference due to this years lingering winter temperatures.
There were no mating Frogs in or around the pond which is strange as
there is usually so much more spawn and Frogs in the pond. After taking a
look around the area I found some white bird poo which tells me a fish
eating bird had been at the pond. In the poo you can see the embryos and
small bits of spawn jelly which tells me the bird has either eating the
spawn or feeding on the Female frogs as they mate.
I am thinking Heron or Cormorant as there are a few in the area
We heard and saw a Kingfisher fly up river and land on the pond as we were leaving but I'm not sure if they would eat Frog spawn although I'm sure they would eat Tadpoles. I'll keep an eye on the pond and the Frog spawn to see if it makes to the next stage in the life of a frog but as there are Otters around to I think the chances are pretty small.
Thanks for reading my blog
Stay wild, be happy and be safe
Mike
