We thought we weren’t going to get any frogspawn in our pond this year but they finally spawned last night. It was like welcoming back old friends. I’ve never known them mate this late. Most years they’re finished by mid-Feb though the earliest I ever found spawn was in South Somerset Feb 5th after a long series of mild winters. That was 30 years or so ago.
During a walk in Mosedale (affectionately known as the Mosedale Bogtrot) in the Lake District we saw frogspawn in icy pools in mid-March 2009, and about the same date in Grisedale in the Yorkshire Dales in 2012.
In mid-March last year we actually witnessed them mating in a huge pond in Mallerstang, a few miles south of Kirkby Stephen (second photo). The photo doesn’t do the scene justice, the croaking and the frenzied thrashing about were spectacular.
Amazing memories often cost nothing.
Andy Hamilton
