On 11/3/06 12:16, in article
, "Sue"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote
The toads that usually make for our fish pond didn't appear until last
Wednesday evening, which is late for us. I don't keep records but
we'd all remarked on that. However, the weather had warmed up
slightly, the wind had gone round to the south west and it had rained
quite a lot, so I suppose that must have started them off. I should
think the poor things were relieved to be able to start their mating
season at last! Yesterday, the wind became very cold again so I do
hope we don't get any more frosts and icing over of the ponds.

As I type it's trying to snow over here in E Angular. I haven't got a
pond as yet but we still see a lot of frogs and a toad or two in the
garden during the year. Does the spawn survive being frozen?

Perhaps there was a pond in your garden? So many ponds and old dewponds
etc. have been filled in or overgrown that the poor frogs and toads are
really desperate for breeding places. I don't know if the spawn survives
being frozen, because I've never seen it happen but I can't really imagine
that it does. I think Kay will probably know - among others!
What IS very heartening is that the birds really are at the nest-building
lark. The rooks were strutting about on the lawn this morning, picking up
pine needles and other bits and bobs and the hedge sparrows are rushing here
and there, picking up bits of dead plant material etc. It really does pay
not to have an over-tidy garden and what a brilliant excuse that is! ;-) Of
course, yesterday we just *had* to have really high winds which always make
me fear for the nests the rooks are so busily constructing. It's even worse
when they're feeding hatchlings because I can just imagine them clinging on
for dear life, wondering why their world is rocking so severely! We always
find a few dead ones on the ground. ;-( One year, our neighbour discovered
a young rook in the churchyard which had obviously fallen out of its nest.
No parents came anywhere near it and eventually, she rescued it only to
discovered it was blind. She reared it and kept it for a long time and one
day, when she had allowed him into the garden for a bit of hopping around
(he never tried to fly) other rooks came down and mobbed him to death.
Nature is indeed very cruel and they must have realised he was disabled in
some way and unfit to breed and pass on possibly defective genes.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)