In message . com, Rod
writes
On 24 Feb, 20:34, Sally Thompson
wrote:
Saw our first frogspawn of the year today - two weeks earlier than usual
(last year was on 11th March). I think this is very early for this part of
the country. We went out just now with the torch and the big pond is teeming
with frogs. Quite lifts the heart.

Also newts already in the pond, which seems early to us although we haven't
kept a record of dates of those.

Mind you, they don't really need the pond since the ground is so incredibly
waterlogged it's difficult to walk on at the moment. They could just bask in
the puddles.

Just been out on the Clwydian Hills this afternoon, there's a cattle
trough on the side of Foel Fenlli at about 450m asl, part filled with
mud and stones from a landslip leaving only about 50-150mm of water
and it's piled high with frogspawn. I watch this trough every year.
I've seen spawn in there when it's frozen and when it's nearly dry but
there's some there every year - never seen a frog around there
though ;~)


I've seen newts in an undamaged cattle trough on Dartmoor - we could
just about imagine newts walking all the way up there, but we couldn't
see how they'd got into the trough.

Meanwhile, a third frog has spawned in my pondlet.

--
Sue ]