Tadpoles

The weather is much milder today and there has also been quite a bit of sun. The last of the frog spawn in our garden pond has now hatched. The pond is black with tiny wriggling tadpoles.

developing frog spawn

I moved a small clump of the frog spawn to an aquarium tank in my workshop. I did the same last year to ensure some of them make it to froglet stage. The workshop is not too warm this time of the year and so the development is a similar time span to the spawn in the pond. The tadpoles are beginning to take shape, some slightly more advanced than others.

Developing spawn

The frog spawn seems unaffected by the ice previously. I noticed this morning that the spawn has started to develop, they now resemble tiny bean shapes.

frozen spawn and nest box

I awoke this morning to discover the pond had frozen during the night. embeded in the ice were the tops of each clump of spawn. The ice was thin, so hopefully it has not caused too much damage. I boilded some water and carefully poured it onto the ice away from the spawn to speed up thawing.

As I came back from taking our daughter to school I stopped to check out the bird box mentioned earlier. After a few minutes a blue tit arrived and entered the nest box. It stayed inside for about 3 minutes before coming out. Another blue tit was near the nest box. Not conclusive evidence that they are nesting, but a good sign.

Woodecker, great tits and flying squirrel.

Walking past Easthill Park this morning I heard the familiar drumming of the great spotted woodpecker and a flash of black and white as it flew past.

The park was alive with the usual tits, finches etc. The chaffinches were particulalrly visible today

On the wayback I noticed movement at the far end of the paddocks in the adjacent horse sanctuary. I walked along by the park wall, adjacent to the paddocks for a closer look. It was a fox. Above me I could see a noisy pair of great tits in the branches. As I came out of the park I watched a squirrel making its way along a branch which extended out over the road. At the last moment the squirrel made a leap, rotating its tail in mid air, paws outstretched and landed on an evergreen on the oteher side. Well thats one way to cross the road.