Robin eating the fat balls

Its been a rather wet and windy day and so I did not put any of the mealworm on the bird feeder station as they would easily blow away.

Surprised today to see a robin (who visits for the mealworm), eating fat balls form the dispenser, balancing on a adjacent branch

Common Frogs Return

After the pond froze yesterday I was really surprised to wake up this morning to a pond full of writhing frogs.

Too many to count at the moment as they dive at the slightest twitch of the curtain, but we often get 30 -40 frogs a year.


Many of these frogs have travelled from outside of our garden.

This one was crossing the pavement outside our house and open its way to our front gate.

Occasionally they pair up even before the reach the pond (which is in our back garden) such as this pair

Any I find on the way to the pond I give a helping hand and will be keeping an eye out over the next few days. Last year I found a couple of frogs who had not managed to reach the pond and died - so I now give them a hand

Frozen frog spawn

I looked out the window this morning and noticed that the pond had frozen over.

This could be disastrous for the frog spawn in the pond that was laid in my pond 8th February when the weather was mild as the spawn can be affected by cold weather.

The layer of ice forms covering the surface of the spawn could cause the upper layer of eggs to die. However it is a big clump of eggs and those in the middle and bottom of the spawn may survive.


Frog spawn development slows down when its cold so I will have to wait and see what occurs. In March, frogs from further afield will usually visit my pond and so there will probably be lots more spawn to look forward to.

Frog spawn

Frogs have been noticeable in our garden since Christmas - croaking has been heard on and off since Christmas day.

Today I noticed the first clump of frog spawn in our garden pond. There are also several frogs. We have had a very mild winter so far.

These early frogs are probably frogs that live in our garden all year. Later, we may have as many as 35 frogs as other visit our garden from further afield.