The year has been pretty cold until now with snow persisting into April.
However, the first frogspawn was spotted on April 4th. The pond temperature was surprisingly 10°C which seemed promising. Some cold snaps later caused the pond to freeze and it was not certain this spawn developed and hatched. Fortunately many tadpoles were observed about a month later all over the pond, so it is suspected that more spawn was laid.
Numerous frogs have subsequently been seen and a couple have taken up residence in a small 'stream' created in the garden about 100 metres from the pond. This has a good plant cover and numerous niches between boulders for cover and a large number of aquatic insects have established themselves. Although no toad spawn was spotted, several toads have also been seen in the vicinity of the pond.
