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Post by ianr on Mar 25, 2019 9:46:41 GMT
Rimac nature reserve, a real frog and toad fest yesterday, blue sky a few clouds but a cold wind didn't seem to put the frogs off though, splashing and singing away for all they were worth the toads were keeping a lower profile and hugging the bottom. But plenty of both to be seen in all the small ponds ian frogs spawning by ian robinson, on Flickr
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Post by rowanberry on Mar 25, 2019 21:05:57 GMT
That's a good number of frogs. We've never had any toads here... or if we have, I've missed seeing them.
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Post by aeshna5 on Apr 6, 2019 13:52:57 GMT
Went on a walk with our natural history society to an LNR in west London. It was overcast, cool breeze with the odd brighter spell + we managed to find at least 20 basking Adders including 3 smart black individuals. First time I've seen melanistic individual. The site possibly has one of the densest Adder populations in the country.
Under refugia we found 4 Slow-worm + a dead Common Lizard.
An excellent morning looking at these lovely reptiles.
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Post by rowanberry on Apr 6, 2019 19:37:15 GMT
Twenty! That's a lot... I've never been lucky enough to see one in the wild.
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Post by aeshna5 on Apr 7, 2019 5:32:28 GMT
Twenty! That's a lot... I've never been lucky enough to see one in the wild. Yes that was a good count. The walk was led by a guy who monitors them so knows where to look. Earlier in the spring he found 65 newly emerged males(the females emerge later). The weather is important- too sunny/warm + they are less easy to find + they are also quite well hidden, so need to have your eye in. On my own I probably wouldn't have seen more than a couple. As it was quite cool yesterday they were easier to find. The large site probably holds 200-400 individuals according to him. The first black one I saw was stunning, with some blue spots.
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 19, 2019 15:21:42 GMT
two newts. When I first saw them seperately rising to the surface now and and again they looked very small to me, so I thought they had emerged recently. However it turned out they were mating. Bit puzzled as one was much fatter round the middle and appeared with what looked like a white sac at the base of its tail. (almost as if was pooing) it was also a lot pale cream on it's under side (presume a female?) The other was slim in camparison was darker, witj just a slightly paler underside. I know very little about newts so is it the breeding season? And what would the white sac be? or is something wrong with the fat one? Newt by Helen Skelton, on Flickr Newt 1 by Helen Skelton, on Flickr
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Post by aeshna5 on Apr 19, 2019 17:25:06 GMT
Certainly is the time for newts to be breeding. Yours look to be Palmate Newts.
I saw a couple of Smooth Newts in my pond this morning + this afternoon visited the busy local country park. In some previous springs I've seen maybe 100 Common Frogs. Though I wouldn't expect to see them now I would expect to see hundreds of thousands of tadpoles- but not one! There does seem to be a problem locally as I only had 2 spawn clumps earlier on. We did see 6 Smooth Newts in the ditches though.
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Post by ianr on Apr 22, 2019 8:10:27 GMT
Lots of one inch froglets at Rimac ian
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Post by NellyDee on Apr 29, 2019 15:53:52 GMT
It is just as well I have a very large pond I seem to have thousands of tadpoles all around the edges. Probably a good thing there are so many as I seem to have a lot of Greater Diving Beetles, and a couple of Plamate Newts. Tadpoles by Helen Skelton, on Flickr
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Post by aeshna5 on May 21, 2019 19:17:41 GMT
Slow-worm found by a colleague at work this afternoon.
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Post by aeshna5 on Jun 23, 2019 15:07:53 GMT
Pleased to see a couple of new froglets by my newish mini-pond.
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Post by rowanberry on Jun 27, 2019 20:28:17 GMT
There were quite a few small frogs in the pond today- too big to be from this spring's tads, so I'm thinking late developers from last year?
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Post by aeshna5 on Jun 28, 2019 4:40:02 GMT
There were quite a few small frogs in the pond today- too big to be from this spring's tads, so I'm thinking late developers from last year? I suspect you are right there!
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Post by NellyDee on Jun 28, 2019 14:15:33 GMT
I thought all the froglets had left the pond or been eaten, but say two tiny fellows at the water's edge plus a couple of newts.
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Post by aeshna5 on Jun 28, 2019 19:34:32 GMT
At Chobham today a large Common Toad sitting amongst the floating Potamogeton in a pool + a Common Lizard by the path.
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