At last!! The frogs have re-appeared from over a week ago (Sunday 14 March was their first appearance). Not only that, but a head count through the binoculars shows there are at least 40 of them. This is much better than I first thought, though still about 20 down on last year.
AND ... we have our first batch of frogspawn this morning.
The frogs' behaviour is quite frantic now. Some are already firmly grasped together in pairs with the male behind the female, clasping his front legs around her middle. When you look in the pond they are easy to spot by the 2 heads - one behind the other - in the water.
Frogs don't mate like mammals. The eggs (frogspawn) are fertilised by the male frogs as they are laid by the female and you will sometimes see male frogs crawling all over the newly hatched eggs to make sure they are successful. Their only aim is to be THE one to fertilise the spawn. So strong is this instinctive behaviour that it is common to see a female frog with 2 males - 1 behind and 1 in front (facing) both clasped firmly. I once saw a ball of frogs - about 6 - 8 inches in diameter - on the gravel next to my pond: I can't remember how many frogs made up this ball but there must have been at least 5. They remained there for a couple of days and it did make me wonder just how the female in the middle managed to breathe!
Several years ago I was delighted to find a very old book on the anatomy of the frog. In it I read that the clasping reflex is so strong that even if you cut off the frog's front legs and remove the frog, you can't remove the severed legs from the female! I don't like to think about how they found this out, but it's an interesting fact and I can well imagine it to be true.
I'm out to lunch today (Italian, not French!!) but when I come back I'll be out there with the camera. The few frogs that have been around this last week (until today, often no more than half a dozen) have been very skittish but I don't think they'll bother about me being there now - far too intent on doing what nature intended.
Temperature around 10+ degrees - mild and very wet
Ttfn :o)
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